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ExxonMobil is looking to sell a 90,000-tonne cargo of fuel oil for delivery in April, Reuters reports.

The 700-centistoke (cst) parcel is scheduled for loading on April 27-29 from the Saudi Aramco Mobil Refinery (SAMREF) in Yanbu, an equally owned joint venture between Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) and Mobil Yanbu Refining Company Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of ExxonMobil.

The cargo is expected to be sold on a free-on-board (FOB) basis by Thursday 7th April.

It is the oil major's second high-viscosity fuel oil cargo scheduled for loading in April after selling a similar-sized parcel to energy trading company Vitol at a discount of approximately $25.00-$27.00 per tonne to Singapore spot quotes, FOB.

ExxonMobil previously sold two 90,000-tonne cargoes for loading from Yanbu on March 6-8 and March 21-23 to Vitol and PTT at discounts of $16.00 per tonne and $17.00-$18.00 per tonne respectively.

The first April cargo, which is due for loading on April 12-14, is thought to have sold at lower levels than in March due to a fall in demand from the Fujairah bunker market with high fixed price levels and high premiums charged to vessels calling at the region due to geopolitical tensions.

Those premiums have weakened significantly over the past few weeks and have led to a narrower price differential with Singapore in the marine fuels market. According to Bunker Index price data, 380-cst prices in Fujairah were even being quoted $2 per tonne below Singapore on April 4th at $668 per tonne and have continued to trade at similar levels to Singapore on April 5th and April 6th.

ExxonMobil's latest 700-cst lot is expected to sell at a higher price than its first April cargo due to the tightening of the East Asia market in the second half of April.

Western arbitrage inflows are expected to be thin this month at 2.9-3.0 million tonnes, with the majority of the cargoes due to arrive in the first half of April.