Asia will receive around 600,000 metric tons less fuel oil from the West in February than in January as supply has tightened in Europe.
The total volume of Western imports to Asia will fall to about 3.2 million tons next month, with around 3 million tons heading to Singapore, tanker fixtures showed.
Fuel oil supply in Europe has tightened in the wake of the recent Russia-Ukraine gas crisis and with an open arbitrage window from Europe to the U.S., traders said.
Several European countries had to turn to fuel oil to fire power plants after their gas supply was cut, reducing exports from the Black Sea, one of the traders said.
With local production trimmed by recent weakness in U.S. product refining margins, U.S. Gulf Coast refiners are importing Russia's M100, or straight-run, fuel oil to feed their secondary units, he added.
"They can't get the heavy, sour crudes they need" as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries has cut production, he said.