Oil shipping cost jumps 80 from Middle East to Europe
Opportunity opens for US refiners to fill gap in Europe
Rerouting around Africa saps tanker supply in Asia

SINGAPORENEW DELHILONDON, Jan 31 Reuters To avoid the Red Sea, the supertanker Grand Bonanza set out early this month on a roughly 40day journey carrying 1.8 million barrels of Abu Dhabi crude for TotalEnergies from the United Arab Emirates all the way around Africa to France.

The trip will take at least two weeks longer than the normal route via the Suez Canal, and at about 5.7 million, will cost nearly 80 more, according to estimates by a shipping source and data from LSEG and Kpler.

The French oil giant39;s booking of the Grand Bonanza illustrates how attacks by Yemenbased Houthi forces on Red Sea shipping, which had mostly affected container shipping, are now driving up costs and disrupting global oil trading.

A strike last Friday on a Trafigurachartered fuel tanker underscored the risk.

Energy producers and traders are weighing the higher prices of longer voyages around the Cape of Good Hope and using larger crude tankers to manage costs and risks, while buyers are demanding discounts to compensate for higher freight and war risk premiums.

Shippers are revising routes and refuelling points and accelerating cruising speeds, which burns more fuel and increases emissions.

Unless the Red Sea disruption eases quickly, we should see some significant increase in the cost of delivered crude, said Stefano…