Latest News Updates From Christopher Charleston

Saudi Arabia closed the East-West pipeline, making American oil supplies even more critical, with record shipping costs doing little to deter buyers in Asia.

Texas oil pipelines are running above designed capacity in some cases amid rampant overseas demand for U.S. crude to replace cargoes stranded by the Iran war.

Crude shipments for April are already inching toward about 4.9 million barrels a day based on current loadings, up from 3.97 million barrels a day in March.

Constraints in infrastructure and supply are likely to keep U.S. oil flows well below headline capacity figures often cited at around 10 million barrels a day.

Freight costs for very large crude carriers have surged. That’s creating a drag on export economics even as dock and pipeline capacities remain available.

Freight costs have dropped sharply and the cheaper shipping environment is encouraging U.S. crude to move offshore, supporting physical crude prices.

U.S. crude exports to China plunged by almost half this year as shifts in the nation’s economy weighed on demand and it bought more barrels from other countries including Russia and Iran.

OPEC and its allies aren’t likely to bring oil output back this year because producers are “making huge money” from refined products, according to Rystad Energy.