Oil Shipping Rates Soar

Key oil freight rates from the Middle East to Asia rocketed as much as 28% on Friday in a global oil shipping market spooked by United States sanctions on units of Chinese giant COSCO for alleged involvement in ferrying crude out of Iran.
In what the State Department called “one of the largest sanctions actions the US has taken” since curbs were re-imposed on Iran in November last year, two units of COSCO were named alongside other companies in claims of involvement in sanctions-busting shipments of Iranian oil, Reuters reported.
The surprise move, affecting one of the world’s largest energy shippers, operating more than 50 supertankers, comes as US President Donald Trump seeks to exert maximum pressure on Iran to drop nuclear programs.
As some Asian oil buyers rushed to secure vessels, rates for chartering supertankers, or very large crude carriers, to load crude oil from the Middle East to north Asia in October surged nearly 19% overnight to about 75-76 points on Worldscale, an industry tool used to calculate freight charges, shipping and industry sources said.
That means an increase of about $600,000 per ship, a Singapore-based crude oil trader said.