{"id":100549,"date":"2026-02-24T07:37:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T10:37:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shipping.einnews.com\/article\/895039636"},"modified":"2026-02-24T07:37:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T10:37:16","slug":"west-african-crude-hit-by-soaring-shipping-costs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/2026\/02\/24\/west-african-crude-hit-by-soaring-shipping-costs\/","title":{"rendered":"West African crude hit by soaring shipping costs"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The cost of shipping barrels to Asia and Europe has climbed sharply, weighing on prices for West African grades. Freight rates for cargoes heading to Asia hit their highest levels in more than five years on Friday, making long-haul shipments increasingly uneconomical. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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At the same time, exports are being squeezed by a widening Brent-Dubai Exchange of Futures for Swaps (EFS), a key price spread that influences arbitrage flows, according to Bloomberg. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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The recent rise in the EFS has made Brent-linked crudes from West Africa, the North Sea and the Mediterranean less attractive to Asian refiners, who typically price imports against Dubai benchmarks. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Discounts deepen <\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
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In the spot market, a late-March loading cargo of the Republic of Congo\u2019s Djeno crude was offered by Trafigura at $5.40 a barrel below the Dated Brent benchmark in a Platts pricing window late last week, traders said. The offer was weaker than February cargoes, which traded between $3 and $4 below the same benchmark, yet it failed to attract a buyer. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Other regional producers, including Angola and Nigeria, have also seen softer pricing in recent weeks. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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The jump in freight rates reflects broader strength in shipping markets, driven by rising global supplies, including the return of Venezuelan barrels, and mounting geopolitical risks, notably tensions between the United States and Iran. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Faced with elevated shipping costs, Indian refiners have increasingly opted for shorter-haul Middle Eastern crude instead of more expensive West African supplies. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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The Brent-Dubai EFS climbed to as high as $2 a barrel on Friday, up from below 50 cents for much of the fourth quarter last year, according to PVM Oil Associates data. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Meanwhile, daily earnings for supertankers on the benchmark Middle East Gulf-to-China route surged to $157,358 on Friday, the highest level since April 2020. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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… West African grades. Freight<\/span> rates for cargoes<\/span> heading to Asia hit … a late-March loading cargo<\/span> of the Republic of … offer was weaker than February cargoes<\/span>, which traded between $3 … jump in freight<\/span> rates reflects broader strength in shipping<\/span> markets, driven …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100549\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}