Caribbean Oil-Tanker Rates Surge as Libya Seen Disrupting Trade
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The cost of hauling Caribbean oil to the U.S. surged to a five-year high amid speculation the region’s vessel supply is being diminished by months of delays to Libyan crude exports that are altering trade flows.
Aframaxes hauling 70,000 metric-ton cargoes on the route earned $85,285 a day today, the most since December 2008, according to the Baltic Exchange in London. Larger Suezmaxes departed the region to meet rising demand for West African oil shipments to Europe, George Los, senior market analyst at Charles R. Weber Co., a shipbroker in Greenwich, Connecticut, said by phone yesterday. That trade-route expansion helped Europe’s refineries cover a shortfall in Libyan crude, he said.