Oil shippers eye higher rate on key Mideast route as risks mount

Asia, the world’s biggest oil importing region, is still heavily reliant on the Middle East for its crude supplies, even as refiners across South Korea, Japan and India seek to diversify.

SINGAPORE: Owners of oil tankers are boosting their rates to haul crude on a key route from the Middle East as risks in the Gulf escalate after Iran retaliated against the U.S. killing of a top general.

Some shipowners are offering rates for supertankers carrying crude from the Persian Gulf to China at between 165 and 180 in Worldscale terms, according to shipbrokers and oil traders in Asia. There have been no fixtures reported at that level yet, they said, asking not to be identified because they’re not authorized to speak to the media.