Oil stocks in the Fujairah emirate increased 5.8% week-on-week to 21.612 million barrels on October 22, Emirates News Agency (WAM) reported.

Stocks of light distillates rose by 8.8%, the biggest weekly rise. Residues increased 5.8%, while stocks of middle distillates had no change from the week before.

Levels of light distillates reached their highest since the inception of inventory reporting in January 2017 on weak gasoline demand and strong supply flows of European gasoline east of Suez.

“Demand remains present, with Kuwait’s KPC and Pakistan’s PSO issuing fresh buy tenders this past week, but this is outweighed by heavy supply fundamentals,” S&P Global Platts Analytics said in a report Wednesday.

Despite strong Asian demand for gasoil, stocks have remained at their highest levels since March 27, 2017.

Weak bunker demand has driven heavy distillate stocks to a nine-week high, however, as bunker prices flatten against crude, demand is expected to pick up, Platts Analytics said.