(Bloomberg) — The cost of shipping US crude to Asia has surged to a fresh record as buyers are desperate to secure energy shipments amid escalating disruptions to supplies in the Middle East.
As of Tuesday, it cost about about $44.8 million to hire a very large crude carrier, or VLCC, to take 2 million barrels of crude from the US Gulf Coast to China, according to Baltic Exchange data. That’s an all-time high and up sharply from $39 million just a day prior. Before the break out of the war in Iran in late February, the cost was about $17.8 million.
US oil continues to backstop the supply gaps left by the war. This week, Saudi Arabia closed the East-West pipeline, the primary link that helped the country circumvent the Iran war-induced turmoil in the Strait of Hormuz. The situation has made American supplies even more critical, with record shipping costs doing little to deter buyers in Asia as the conflict reshapes global energy flows.
The trade remains viable because West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark US crude grade, delivered into Asia is still cheaper than competing cargoes, such as Murban from the United Arab Emirates. As long as that price advantage remains, buyers are likely to absorb the higher-than-usual shipping costs.
The jump in the Gulf Coast shipping costs comes as global tanker freight rates are also rising, and there is little sign of that momentum changing. There are fewer ships willing to transit routes that carry the risk of attack, including through the critical Strait of Hormuz. And meanwhile, robust fuel demand means that refiners to keep purchasing and shipping whatever barrels they can get because it’s still profitable for them to process the oil into finished fuels like diesel and gasoline.
Data from research firm Kpler already show six VLCCs set to load crude from the US Gulf Coast for Asia in October.
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