SINGAPORE, March 30 (Reuters) - Asia's fuel oil prices eased to a three-week low on Friday, tracking weakened underlying crude benchmark levels, while spreads and spot premiums held mostly steady. Only one 380-centistoke (cst) deal was done during the physical trading window at a premium of around $2.00 a tonne above Singapore spot quotes. Activity in the swaps market was also moderate, with most trades concentrated on the April/May timespread. Slightly over 100,000 tonnes of the front month spread was traded within a fairly narrow range of $3.50-$3.65 a tonne. The prompt timespreads have been traded within a conservative range of 25 cents either way for most of the week, Reuters data showed. Much lower imports from the West for next month are helping to provide some support to the market, which had weakened considerably under the influx of heavy arbitrage volumes seen for March, traders said. Western arbitrage arrivals for April so far have hovered under the 2.5 million-tonne mark, despite fairly active tanker-fixing activity in the past two weeks. New fixtures are for cargoes scheduled to arrive in May, or go ever as far back to June instead, according to shipping reports. Mercuria provisionally chartered the Intisar to move 100,000 tonnes from Tallinn on April 7, while ENI booked Rich Duke II to ship 80,000 tonnes from Aliaga in early April. Gunvor fixed the Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) Manah to ship 270,000 tonnes from Rotterdam around April 24. Unipec was also seen chartering two ships to move supplies into China, with the Bouboulina to be loaded with 130,000 tonnes from the Black Sea and Cospearl Lake to ship 270,000 tonnes from Rotterdam. Traders are hopeful that bunker demand would pick up by then, with current spot bunker premiums, difference between fuel oil cargo prices and ex-wharf marine fuel prices, improving to over $4.00 a tonne. "With spot premium improving, the Q3 term premium should get bumped up from its high single-digit range at the moment," a bunker source said. TENDERS/SPOT No tenders CASH TRADES Grade Seller Buyer Vol Laycan Price (Transaction) 380cst Koch Oil BP 25KT April 14-18 April Avg +$2.00 FUEL OIL CASH ($/T) ASIA CLOSE Change % Change Prev RIC Close Cargo - 180cst 741.85 -8.50 -1.13 750.35 FO180-SIN Diff - 180cst 4.00 0.00 0.00 4.00 FO180-SIN-DIF Cargo - 380cst 728.65 -8.30 -1.13 736.95 FO380-SIN Diff - 380cst 2.75 0.15 5.77 2.60 FO380-SIN-DIF Bunker (Ex-wharf)- 380cst 733.00 -8.00 -1.08 741.00 BK380-B-SIN Bunker (Ex-wharf) Premium 4.35 0.30 7.41 4.05 SWAPS ($/T) ASIA CLOSE Change % Change Prev RIC (0830 GMT) Close Brent M1 122.90 -1.63 -1.31 124.53 180cst M1 738.63 -8.37 -1.12 747.00 180cst M1/M2 3.63 0.00 0.00 3.63 180cst M2 735.00 -8.38 -1.13 743.38 Visco M1 12.00 0.00 0.00 12.00 Visco M2 11.75 -0.25 -2.08 12.00 380cst M1 726.63 -8.37 -1.14 735.00 380cst M1/M2 3.38 -0.25 -6.89 3.63 380cst M2 723.25 -8.13 -1.11 731.38 Cracks 180-Dubai M1 -6.09 0.24 -3.79 -6.33 Cracks 180-Dubai M2 -5.63 0.33 -5.54 -5.96 East-West M1 41.75 -0.75 -1.76 42.50 East-West M2 39.00 0.00 0.00 39.00 Barges M1 696.88 -7.62 -1.08 704.50 Barges M1/M2 0.88 0.75 576.92 0.13 Barges M2 696.00 -8.38 -1.19 704.38 Crack Barges-Brent M1 -15.82 0.34 -2.10 -16.16 Crack Barges-Brent M2 -15.59 0.31 -1.95 -15.90 SWAP TRADES Contract Price range Vols ('000T) 180cst April $737.50-$741.00 215 180cst April/May $3.50-$3.65 110 180cst May/June $4.00 15 380cst April $726.00-$728.00 100 380cst April/May $3.50 35 380cst May/June $4.00 5 April viscosity $11.50 30 Q3 viscosity $11.00 30 April/May viscosity $0.00 25 Q4 crack -$18.00 15 April E-W $42.50 5

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