Gasoline Shipping Day Rates Triple Under Houthi Attack

Day rates for shipping gasoline from Europe to the U.S. have tripled since the beginning of the year, Bloomberg reports, citing data from the Baltic Exchange on Monday, as Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis continue their relentless attack on vessels traversing the Red Sea. 

The day rate for a single cargo of gasoline heading from northwestern Europe to the east coast of the United States reached nearly $38,000 per day on Monday, Bloomberg reported. 

That represents a tripling of day rates since the beginning of the year. 

Cargoes are increasingly being rerouted around Africa to avoid the Red Sea, with the significantly lengthier journeys meaning that there are fewer vessels available on the spot market, Bloomberg noted. 

The situation in the Red Sea continued to intensify on Monday, with the Houthis claiming to have launched a missile attack on an American military cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden. 

Reports were still emerging at the time of writing, with no confirmation from the U.S. military. It remained unclear whether the alleged attack resulted in any damage. “The Yemeni armed forces continue to retaliate to any American or British aggression against our country by targeting all sources of threat in the Red and Arab Sea,” Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said in a Monday statement carried by Reuters. 

Reuters cited a British maritime security firm as confirming that the vessel the Houthis claim to have attacked, the Ocean Jazz, had been contracted by the U.S. military. 

Also on Monday, Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, the U.S. Navy’s top Middle East commander, told the Associated Press that Iran was “very directly involved” in the shipping attacks carried out by the Houthis, though statements have been vague, at best. Cooper did not say that the attacks were being directed by Tehran on a case-by-case basis. 

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprfice.com

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