Fuel oil's front-month contract settled at ¥4,743/t, down 1.92%, while bitumen held at ¥4,500/t, up 0.11%. The pair had traded with bitumen at a premium for roughly a week, the discount to fuel oil reaching as deep as 579 yuan. Today the sign flipped: fuel oil now commands a 243 yuan premium. For traders running crude transfers and bonded warehouse receipts, this spread matters more than the outright levels.

The driver sits in residue yield. Bitumen stems from coking and oxidation routes; fuel oil leans toward bunker blending, mainly VLSFO. When low-sulfur bunker blending pays more than bitumen, independents steer vacuum residue and slurry oil toward marine fuel, pulling supply away from fuel oil and firming its relative price. The IMO2020 0.5% sulfur cap keeps compliant low-sulfur bunker demand a hard floor that does not vanish on a short-term dip.

For SNSUC's transfer book, a firmer fuel oil leg means the bunker value embedded in residue yield must be re-marked when medium-sour barrels like ESPO or Oman sit at the base of the book. The Brent-WTI spread narrowed to $8.03/bbl today (Brent 105.772, WTI 97.745) from the $11-plus seen earlier this month. Dated Brent pricing variance on Middle East and Far East cargoes compressed, so the pricing window for transfers is tighter than two weeks ago, yet the bunker blending margin worth locking should be locked first.