London — The crippling of the US Gulf Coast refining hub by Tropical Storm Harvey roiled global oil markets on Thursday as traders scrambled to buy petrol and diesel from distant markets to avert supply shortages in the US, Mexico and Brazil. A slew of petrol tankers has been booked over the past two days out of Europe to the US and Latin America, with about 12.5-million barrels expected to leave the region in the first half of the month, sharply higher than usual flows, according to traders and shipping data. Mexico’s state-run oil company Pemex, which heavily relies on US fuel supplies, has over the past week booked at least seven cargoes of petrol, or about 2.1-million barrels, from Singapore, Canada and Europe, according to the same sources. In another sign of how Harvey is opening rarely used trading routes, at least three tankers carrying diesel have been booked out of Europe and the Mediterranean to go to Brazil, which also usually draws large volumes from the US Gulf Coast. ...
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