Light distillate stocks at Fujairah collapsed 37% to a record low of 1.121 million barrels in the week ended 20 July, and total product stocks fell 16% to 8.492 million, a three-week low1. Fujairah is the Gulf's main bunkering and re-export hub, sitting outside the strait of Hormuz on the Gulf of Oman coast, so its stock swings read across the whole East-West product trade. Middle distillates ran the other way, up 35% to a three-month high of 1.506 million, while heavy grades fell 19%.
A record-low gasoline print at Fujairah lands just as the Bab el-Mandeb diversions cut the Suez-routed cargoes that Mediterranean refiners at Sines, Augusta and Trieste lean on to backfill. Singapore has already been retaining distillate barrels as the East-West arbitrage window narrows, and ARA gasoil sat at a 2.5-year low near 13.48 million barrels the week before. A tighter Fujairah and a longer Cape haul point the product-availability risk at the Mediterranean landing, not the Gulf loading.
Light distillates hit a record low while middle distillates rose to a three-month high, a product-mix inversion rather than a uniform draw. For a Med refiner watching backfill routes lengthen, the gasoline leg is the one to hedge.
