Image: Maersk

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Maersk Oil Trading (MOT) has leased 120,000 cubic metres (cbm) of fuel oil tank storage in Singapore, according to Reuters.

The storage space is said to have been contracted for six months at the Tankstore oil terminal, located at Pulau Busing (an island located off the southwestern coast of Singapore), with the booking coming at a time of low storage demand as the oil futures market is currently in backwardation - where future prices are lower than the current month.

The latest development follows the announcement in August that Vopak is teaming up with MOT's parent company, A.P. Moller - Maersk, to provide the container shipper with a 0.5-percent-sulphur-fuel bunkering facility in Rotterdam, Europe's biggest bunkering port.

The Netherlands facility, located at Vopak Terminal Europoort, will enable Maersk to blend, store and handle different fuel types in a move designed to ensure full compliance with the upcoming 0.5 percent global cap on fuel sulphur content in 2020.

MOT's Singapore-based business, Maersk Oil Trading Singapore Pte Ltd, was founded in 2012 and is a licensed physical supplier in the city-state after being granted a bunker supplier licence by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) in July 2016.

Last year, the firm was ranked as Singapore's 27th-biggest supplier - up nine places compared to the previous year.

MOT, which also has offices in Copenhagen, New York and Rotterdam, is responsible for sourcing roughly 11.5 to 12 million tonnes of marine fuel per annum for the entire fleet of the A.P. Moller - Maersk Group.

Commissioned in 1990, the Tankstore terminal in Singapore has a total tankage capacity of two million cubic metres in 112 tanks ranging in size from 300 cbm to 60,000 cbm, with 12 berths that can handle vessels up to 236,000 deadweight tonnes (dwt).