Fuel oil exports from Saudi Arabia hit four-month high volumes for October, with at least 600,000-650,000 tonnes loading from the Kingdom amid a weak market, traders said.

Although most of the cargoes are remaining in the Middle East, instead of flowing east to Singapore, the heavy supplies have contributed to the market's current poor state, with its prompt timespreads and cracks mired in milestone-low levels.

'It's adding to the market's burden, although the Saudi cargoes are not the primary cause,' a Singapore-based Western trader said.

Demand has been poor in both Singapore and the Middle East, with players unwilling to take risks amid a year of poor trading margins, he said.

'Even the Saudis themselves have problems selling the cargoes, especially the low-density Ras Tanura barrels that had to be traded in steep discounts,' he added.

Saudi Aramco sold three A961 cargoes, for October-loading from the 550,000 barrel-per-day refinery, at discounts steeper than $3 a tonne to Singapore spot quotes, on a free-on-board basis.

Two of the three parcels were sold to Middle East trader FAL Oil, mainly for the Pakistan utility market, while the remaining cargo was sold to Japan's Petrosummit in a rare arbitrage of Ras Tanura lots as blendstock for the Singapore bunker market.

The two 90,000-tonne, 180-cst cargoes and another 380-cst parcel, from its joint-venture Sasref refinery in Jubail, were sold in the last two weeks via private negotiations.

Supplies from the Middle East have been rising since last month, particularly from Saudi Arabia, when the kingdom emerged from its peak summer demand period.

September-loading volumes stand at 500,000-550,000 tonnes, up from 300,000-350,000 tonnes for each of the past two months, while 350,000-400,000 tonnes of October-lifting cargoes have been sold or offered so far, including the current lot.

The East Asian market has been weak for over a month, with its prompt October/November timespread at a seven-month low contango of $4.50-$4.75 a tonne for the past three sessions, while its crack was at five-month lows near $8.00 a barrel.

The market has also been dampened by heavy arrivals from the West, with October volumes at four-year highs of around 3.9 million tonnes, amid a difficult trading environment.