Oslo: The cost of shipping Middle East crude to Asia, the world's busiest route for supertankers, may drop for a 17th day as the supply of carriers accumulates and oil companies cut cargo demand.

Refineries ordering crude cargoes may be assuming a US recession will crimp fuel demand, and the volume of oil being ship-ped "looks less," than in December, Per Mansson, a tanker broker at Nor Ocean Stockholm AB said in an e-mailed note.


"All markets are coloured by the world economy in general and the US in particular," Mansson said. Rental rates may slide until the largest owners refuse to take lower hire prices, he said.

ExxonMobil Corp, the world's biggest oil company, hired the tanker Astro Lupus at a rate of 67.5 Worldscale points for a cargo to Japan, according to a report from Oslo-based shipbroker PF Bassoe AS. That's 44 per cent below the London-based Baltic Exchange's 120.94-point benchmark for voyages to Asia.