LSFO & LSWR (Low-Sulphur Straight-Run Fuel Oil)

Low-sulphur atmospheric residue and waxy residue, bought as cracker and coker feed and as 0.5% bunker blendstock

Low-sulphur straight-run fuel oil is the atmospheric residue of a sweet crude, sold as it leaves the distillation column. Two grades are traded. LSWR, low-sulphur waxy residue, is the bottom of a waxy sweet crude: sulphur of 0.15 to 0.40%, pour point of +35 to +50 °C, 15 to 30% wax, vanadium under 15 ppm and nickel under 25 ppm, carried heated at 55 to 65 °C. LS SRFO, usually offered at 280 or 380 cSt, is lower in wax: sulphur of 0.30 to 0.50%, pour point of +15 to +30 °C, vanadium under 35 ppm and nickel under 45 ppm. Both are bought for what they are not: not cracked, not blended with cutter stock, and low in the metals and carbon residue that poison a catalyst. A refiner charges them to a residue cracker or a coker to make gasoline, diesel and propylene without first having to desulphurise the feed; a bunker blender uses them to bring a blend under the 0.5% sulphur cap for marine fuel. The price is a differential to the Singapore 0.5% marine fuel or 180 cSt assessment, set by sulphur, viscosity, pour point, carbon residue and metals.

The largest feedstock market is China, which imported 21.6 million MT of fuel oil in 2025, about 10% less than the 2024 record after the import tariff rose and the consumption-tax rebate on fuel oil used as feedstock was tightened. Independent refiners in Shandong run crude first and buy low-sulphur residue when their crude quota runs short; the 2026 quota for non-state refiners is 257 million MT, unchanged, and the first two batches covered about 70% of a refiner's year against 100% in 2025, which pushes fuel-oil buying towards the end of the year. The bunker side is as large: China's bonded marine fuel exports rose 11.6% to 20.47 million MT in 2025, more than 8 million MT of it through Zhoushan. Supply that a buyer can document comes from refineries in Indonesia, Brazil, Brunei, Malaysia, Nigeria and the US Gulf. CBIL is a commodity brokerage company and brokers LSFO and LSWR in 30,000 to 45,000 MT MR parcels and 80,000 to 130,000 MT Aframax and LR2 cargoes, with the producing refinery named on the certificate of analysis, quantity and quality certified by SGS or Intertek at the loading shore tank, and loading from a refinery berth, not from a ship-to-ship transfer. Buyers and discharge terminals are checked against sanctions lists before an offer goes out. Offers built on tank storage receipts, dip tests, SCO, ICPO or FCO sequences or advance fees are not worked. Cargoes move as MARPOL Annex I oil in heated tankers on FOB, CFR and CIF terms.

See also: LSFO and LSWR CFR Shandong: the independent refiners' market · Straight-run fuel oil and atmospheric residue, all sulphur grades · VLSFO 0.5%, the finished marine fuel

Excluded origins are not offered, including product re-exported, blended or re-processed through a third country. Every lot moves with a certificate of origin naming the producing plant, mine or grower country, and nothing is quoted before the seller and loading point are known.