- The benchmark daily rate for oil supertankers neared $40,000 on Wednesday, according to Bloomberg data.
- That marks the highest rate since June 2020 and comes amid a surge in crude exports from the Middle East and US.
- Changing ship routes amid Russia sanctions have lengthened the journeys of some supertankers.
Giant oil tankers are raking in the most money since June 2020 as exports from the US and Middle East climb, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The benchmark daily rate for supertankers hovered near $40,000 a day on Wednesday, and shipowners told Bloomberg the spike stemmed from an uptick in cargoes coming from the Middle East and US.
Sanctions against Russia have redirected global crude flows, leaving some tankers with much longer distances to travel in recent months.
US crude exports have skyrocketed as they attempt to fill the gap of missing Russian barrels. New data from the Energy Information Administration revealed that US exports hit a fresh high of 5 million barrels a day last week.
At the same time, separate figures from Bloomberg show that oil flows coming out of the Middle East have climbed higher in July.
Even more oil could come from the Mideast if the Iran nuclear deal is revived. However, Goldman Sachs said the US and Iran may have less an incentive to strike a deal than some anticipate, and that Moscow, too, could threaten an agreement.
A stalemate, analysts from Goldman Sachs wrote Tuesday, is "mutually beneficial" to the US and Iran, and thus oil markets may have gotten ahead of themselves.
But even if a deal came to fruition, Iran would take roughly a year to fully ramp up its production, Goldman said.