The cost of shipping US crude to Asia has surged to a record high amid escalating disruptions to Middle East supplies, Bloomberg reported Tuesday, citing Baltic Exchange data.

It cost about $44.8 million to hire a very large crude carrier to move 2 million barrels of crude from the US Gulf Coast to China as of Tuesday, an all-time high, and up sharply from $39 million a day earlier, the report said, adding that before the war in Iran broke out in late February, the cost was about $17.8 million.

The report said Saudi Arabia closed its East-West pipeline this week, the primary route the kingdom had used to bypass disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, making US crude supplies even more critical to global energy flows.

Buyers in Asia are likely to keep absorbing the elevated shipping costs as long as West Texas Intermediate delivered into Asia remains cheaper than competing cargoes such as UAE's Murban, according to the report. Citing data from research firm Kpler, Bloomberg said six VLCCs are already set to load crude from the US Gulf Coast for Asia in October.

Baltic Exchange did not immediately respond to a request for comment from MT Newswires.

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