The record-high freight costs refiners have to pay to receive a cargo of crude oil from the U.S. Gulf Coast have effectively shut the arbitrage to Asia, with refiners in the top crude oil-importing region turning to more barrels from the Middle East and South America, shipbrokers and traders have told Reuters.
U.S. crude, which had come to the rescue of the Asian refiners during most of the Iran war, is now out of reach in Asia because the economics of paying $80 million to have a cargo of crude oil shipped from the U.S.
Gulf Coast simply don’t…