Here’s Bloomberg adding fuel to the free trade argument! emphasis mine…
A spike in American gasoline prices as the storm cuts off supplies is drawing shipments from as far away as Singapore. The disruptions are also weighing on global crude futures, helping drive up processing profits thousands of miles away from Harvey’s trail of destruction on the U.S. Gulf Coast. Returns from making oil products in Asia have soared to the highest level in more than two years. Even companies that aren’t transporting fuel west are benefiting, according to Indian Oil, the nation’s top refiner.
Traders have hired vessels to ferry at least 105,000 tons of processed products from Singapore to America next month, and are seeking to charter more. Tankers have been booked to transport gasoline from Europe to the U.S., and the fuel is now set to be shipped over even longer distances as the premium of American prices soar relative to those in Asia, the world’s biggest oil market.