The International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Wednesday 21 October that shipping crude from The Gulf to Asia cost more than $37 a barrel by mid-October, over five times the pre-war rate1. That is about 23 US cents on every litre of crude before it is refined. A supertanker carrying 2 million barrels now pays more than $74m in freight per cargo, against under $15m before the war. Supertanker owners were already booking record earnings in September.
Brent Crude, the global oil benchmark, traded at $112.27 a barrel on Thursday 22 October, about 3.2% above Tuesday's settlement and above Tuesday's five-month intraday high of $111.99, the Associated Press reported2. It had settled at $109.55 on Monday 19 October, then $108.79 on Tuesday, Reuters reported3. West Texas Intermediate, the US benchmark, closed at $103.66 on Monday, its highest since 15 September4.
Kpler, a ship-tracking data firm, put Middle East oil shipments above 24 million barrels a day in the week to 18 October, against a pre-war average of 23.3 million, the Wall Street Journal reported. Through Hormuz itself, flows run at about 82% of pre-war, so close to a fifth of the strait's old traffic has not returned. Pipelines now carry about 40% of the region's crude exports around the strait, against 17% before the war, which still leaves about 60% passing through Hormuz5.
The ship-to-ship transfers that keep volume whole happen in The Gulf of Oman, outside the strait; the Revolutionary Guards say they hit transfers inside The Persian Gulf, and have not claimed any off Oman. The Group of Seven (G7) release of up to 100 million barrels from government stockpiles adds oil on land and does nothing for freight.
