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Signal · Commodities & Input Costs

Soaring Freight Costs Make Japan’s Crude Imports the World’s Most Expensive

Oilprice.com Trade press Published 24th September 2026 Global

What the source reported

Source-reported

Oil is increasingly getting more expensive before it even reaches a refinery. Freight now accounts for roughly a fifth of the cost of a crude cargo, turning the tanker market into a major driver of the price buyers pay. At the center of the squeeze is the very large crude carrier, or VLCC, the supertanker that can move about 2 million barrels in a single voyage. Amidst stranded Gulf and Red Sea supplies, these vessels are spending more time at sea as refiners search farther afield for supplies. For instance, Indian buyers are now reaching into…

Publication
Oilprice.com · Trade Publication
Published
24th September 2026
Original report
oilprice.com

ProcIntel stores what the source published in its feed — a headline, a summary and a link. It does not store or reproduce the full article.

What ProcIntel recorded

ProcIntel-derived
Category
Commodities & Input Costs
Geography
Global
Organisations
None identified
Collected
25th September 2026 · 02:29

Initial assessment ProcIntel's automatic, provisional read of this individual Signal -- Initial Significance and Initial Confidence, computed deterministically before any Event extraction or human review.

A provisional, automatically computed reading of this individual Signal, before Event extraction or human review. Not a final rating.

Significance 2 · Moderate
Confidence 2 · Low

Initial Significance Moderate (28.0/100). Strongest contributor: Procurement Impact (12.0/30 points). Limiting factor: Likely Event Severity (3.0/30 points). Initial Confidence Low (31.5/100, data sufficiency: Partial). Strongest contributor: Source Authority (20.0/40 points). Limiting factor: Corroboration (2.5/25 points).

Strongest contributor
Procurement Impact
Limiting factor
Likely Event Severity