By Florence Tan and Poppy McPherson
Vitol returned to Myanmar as a fuel supplier in April for the first time in months after Hin Leong Trading Pte Ltd left the market, three sources with knowledge of the matter said.
Hin Leong, one of Asia's top oil traders, has been placed under the management of a court-appointed supervisor to restructure billions of dollars of debt.
The Singapore-based trader had been supplying more than 50% of Myanmar's diesel and gasoline seaborne imports before it cancelled all its supply contracts with Myanmar importers in April, the sources said.
"The biggest seller used to be Hin Leong and now they've stopped since April," one of the sources said, adding that Vitol has returned to the market after Hin Leong's exit.
Vitol and Hin Leong did not respond to requests for comment.
Vitol, the world's largest independent oil trader, is offering attractive credit terms of up to 90 days to buyers in Myanmar and has chartered a tanker for at least six months to deliver fuel, the sources said.
Meanwhile, fuel imports into Myanmar rose 16.3% in the first four months this year from the same period a year ago, despite the coronavirus pandemic.
The country imported about 2.24 million tonnes of diesel and gasoline by sea and by trucks at its borders between January and April, industry data obtained by Reuters showed.
Roughly 75% of the seaborne diesel imports are gasoil with a sulphur content of 500 parts per million (ppm) while the rest are 10-ppm gasoil, the second source said.
(Reporting by Florence Tan in Singapore and Poppy McPherson in Bangkok; Additional reporting by Seng Li Peng; editing by David Evans)
