Dry weather is set to force large oil tankers to completely stop using the Panama Canal, requiring the vessels to extend their voyages by thousands of miles, a shipping researcher said.

The center of gravity in the global oil-refining complex is shifting sharply eastward — and that’s spurring a boom in the business of building ships to haul fuel around the globe.

The cost of moving gasoline and other fuels on ocean-going tankers is soaring days after sanctions targeting Russia’s petroleum sales.

ConMet Digital announced a partnership with Stephens Pneumatics, a manufacturer of highly customized tank trailers, transporters and vehicle beds, to supply telematics systems for new tank trailer builds.

Oil tankers hauling fuels such as gasoline and diesel are poised for their biggest demand surge in three decades next year, with disruption to Russian oil flows boosting the distances vessels will have to sail.

The Biden administration temporarily eased century-old U.S. shipping requirements so a single foreign tanker could transport gasoline and jet fuel to the East Coast, where the Colonial Pipeline outage caused tanks to run dry.

The Trump administration is preparing sanctions on as many as 50 oil and fuel tankers as part of an effort to cut off trade between Iran and Venezuela, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Tank truck carriers have been among the trucking industry’s hardest-hit segments during the COVID-19 pandemic.

More than two months and 20,000 kilometers (12,000 miles) ago, the tanker Da Yuan Hu left Singapore and headed to Mexico to pick up a shipment of crude oil. On Sept. 26, with less than two weeks to go until it reaches its destination, its long quest could be in jeopardy.

Iran is racing to return an oil supertanker to international waters after a Gibraltar court determined it couldn’t wait for the United States to take action that would prolong the six-week detention of the vessel for allegedly violating trade sanctions.