The cost of hiring one very large crude carrier to move US oil to Asia topped $77 million, new data showed Wednesday, surging more than 700% from its 2025 average.
The Baltic Exchange reported the staggering numbers as attacks on tankers rose across multiple theaters of war. One was struck off Qatar Wednesday, after a drone strike sunk an oil tanker off Russia’s Black Sea coast, and two tankers were targeted in Bulgaria’s waters Tuesday.
Meanwhile, US efforts to staunch the flow of Iranian oil through its shadow fleet network, often through sanctions, have faltered: “They can just start another company,” one tanker operator told The New York Times. “Once you start sanctioning marine service providers, it will never end.”
