The cost of transporting crude oil from the United States to Asia has surged to record levels as the ongoing conflict in the Middle East disrupts key global energy shipping routes, Bloomberg reported.

According to shipping data, chartering a supertanker to move about two million barrels of crude from the US Gulf Coast to China now costs more than $29 million—almost twice the rate recorded just two weeks ago.

Freight rates have spiked after the widening regional conflict effectively halted tanker movements through the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most critical oil transit routes. With supplies from the Persian Gulf constrained, Asian refiners have increasingly turned to US crude, pushing tanker demand and shipping costs sharply higher.

At current levels, transportation alone adds roughly $14.50 per barrel to the price of crude—nearly 20 percent of the value of West Texas Intermediate (WTI), which is trading close to $75 per barrel.

The jump marks a dramatic shift compared with August, when shipping accounted for only about 5 percent of the WTI price. Since then, the relative cost of chartering a supertanker has roughly quadrupled.

However, the surge in freight rates is already beginning to disrupt global oil trade flows. Bloomberg reported that several tanker bookings to load crude from the US Gulf Coast have started to collapse over the past 24 hours, as the sharply higher transport costs make some export deals uneconomical.