Soaring fuel prices from the 51³Ô¹ÏÍø are forcing oil traders into longer, stranger journeys, sending cargoes on routes that would normally make little economic sense.
Consider the STI Solace, a 250-meter-long tanker now motoring past West Africa carrying diesel, according to a person familiar with the matter. After loading off the U.K. in the latter half of March, it¡¯s about a third of the way through a trip of more than 12,000 miles to Australia, tracking data from Energy Aspects and Signal Ocean shows.
What makes the shipment particularly eye-catching is the direction of travel: Europe generally pulls in diesel rather than exporting it. But while Europe¡¯s diesel benchmark has soared since the war began, prices in Asia have jumped even more, meaning it can still make sense to send a cargo thousands of miles across the globe.
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