OPEC Puts Shipping and Insurance Costs Above a Third of Crude Value at Joint Workshop
Shipping and insurance costs have passed one-third of crude’s value this year, OPEC’s Secretary General told an online workshop that OPEC, the IEA and the IEF convened on 4 November.
For producing and consuming economies alike, that puts the cost of moving and insuring a cargo at more than a third of what the crude itself is worth, on the Secretary General’s figure. In The Edge’s reading, the format is the news as much as the number: producer ministers asked for the workshop, and the IEA and the IEF convened it jointly with OPEC.
The session went under the name “Joint IEA-IEF-OPEC Technical Workshop on the Security of Energy Flows: Maritime Routes and Market Stability”. The three organisations brought together key stakeholders and leading industry experts to discuss energy flows by sea, shipping and insurance.
Producer ministers asked for the workshop in Riyadh
The request came from the ministers of the Declaration of Cooperation, the group of OPEC and non-OPEC producers, who met in Riyadh on 12 October on the sidelines of IEF17 and the 25th WPC Energy Congress. The IEF17 ministerial itself was set out earlier.
At that meeting the ministers said the interruption of energy flows had lifted the cost of shipping and insurance to unprecedented levels of more than one-third of the commodity value. In their account, the cost was slowing the timely movement of crude and products and adding inflationary pressure on the global economy.
They also said the burden is transmitted along the oil value chain to producing and consuming countries, and said they would engage governments, industry and organisations such as the IEF and the IEA to improve shipping conditions. The same meeting reaffirmed the ministers’ commitment to the decisions of 7 June.
The 4 November figure repeats the threshold the ministers used on 12 October: more than one-third of the value, of the commodity then and of the underlying crude oil now.
The workshop sits inside a joint programme of work that energy ministers endorsed at the 12th International Energy Forum, in Cancún, Mexico, in March 2010, as part of the Cancún Declaration. That makes the trilateral track more than 16 years old. The release also ties the meeting to the IEF17 Ministerial Concluding Statement and its line on protecting energy infrastructure and trade routes.
Three heads of organisation put safe passage at sea at the centre of energy security
Haitham Al Ghais, OPEC’s Secretary General, said participants in the Declaration of Cooperation remain fully committed to the stability of global energy markets. He said the discussions would help identify possible solutions to the challenges producers and consumers face in today’s maritime trade.
He called maritime energy flows a core pillar of global energy security. The higher transport and risk expenses, he said, have passed along the entire oil and energy value chains, straining producing and consuming economies alike and adding inflationary pressure worldwide.
Fatih Birol, Executive Director of the IEA, said energy markets face “a crisis of unprecedented proportions”, hitting both the production and the transport of oil and gas. He credited producers with working hard to keep supply going in extremely difficult circumstances, and said all parties must work to protect freedom of passage at sea.
Jassim Alshirawi, Secretary General of the IEF, said safe passage by sea matters to producers, consumers and transit countries alike. Disruption, he said, can raise energy, food and transport costs far beyond the region affected, with the heaviest burden on vulnerable communities. He pointed to more dialogue and data transparency as the way to restore confidence and support investment.
Of the three, only Mr Al Ghais put a figure on the cost. Mr Birol and Mr Alshirawi spoke of disruption and its costs in general terms.
Gulf exports rebounded in September while tanker rates hit records
The IEA’s October Oil Market Report, published on 14 October, gives the backdrop the workshop met against. Gulf crude exports, led by Saudi Arabia, rose by 4.4 million barrels a day in September to 13.9 million, figures set out earlier.
Total oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz rose by 3.7 million barrels a day to 10.9 million, helped by ship-to-ship transfers in the Gulf of Oman. Bypass exports, lifted by the swift return of East-West pipeline flows, rose by 970,000 barrels a day to 5.6 million. That is more than half the volume that moved through the Strait. The report called the rebound fragile and said further gains were under threat.
Gulf oil flows in September (in million barrels a day)
| Measure | September | Change on August |
|---|---|---|
| Gulf crude exports | 13.9 | +4.4 |
| Strait of Hormuz flows | 10.9 | +3.7 |
| Bypass exports | 5.6 | +0.97 |
Strait of Hormuz flows are total oil; bypass exports are oil moved around the Strait, including by the East-West pipeline. From the October Oil Market Report, published 14 October 2026.
The report recorded record tanker rates, which raised crude delivery costs and eroded refinery margins. Record freight and crude costs squeezed margins in Europe and Asia, it said, while discounted feedstocks pushed US margins to new highs.
Prices moved with them. North Sea Dated rose by $26.17 a barrel month on month in September, to $116.89. By the time the report was written, Brent futures had gained 13% since the start of September, to an estimated $107 a barrel, the IEA said.
Physical cargoes went further. North Sea Dated was up 43% over the same span, at $134 a barrel, a percentage gain about 3.3 times that of Brent futures.
Price gains since the start of September (in %)
| Benchmark | Gain |
|---|---|
| Brent futures | 13 |
| North Sea Dated | 43 |
Gains from the start of September to the time of writing of the October Oil Market Report, published 14 October 2026.
Stocks show the other side of the ledger. Global observed inventories ended September 509 million barrels below their end-February level, and on-land stocks sat at their lowest since at least 2016.
Oil on water rose by 103 million barrels in September amid the sharp rise in Gulf exports. A further 113 million barrel fall in on-land stocks more than offset it, leaving global observed inventories 10 million barrels lower over the month.
What to watch: 13 November, 09:00 GMT: the IEA’s November Oil Market Report. 29 November: the next monthly meeting of the seven OPEC+ countries, set out earlier.
Figures are from the release of 4 November 2026 published by OPEC and the IEF, OPEC’s statement on the Declaration of Cooperation ministers’ meeting of 12 October 2026 and the IEA Oil Market Report of 14 October 2026; percentages and comparisons not attributed to a source are The Edge’s calculations.
Sources: OPEC, IEF, IEA, The Edge.
