The cost of hauling Caribbean oil to the U.S. surged to a five-year high amid speculation the region’s vessel supply is being diminished by months of delays to Libyan crude exports that are altering trade flows. Aframaxes hauling 70,000 metric-ton cargoes on the route earned $83,205 a day yesterday, the most since December 2008, according to the Baltic Exchange in London . Larger Suezmaxes departed the region to meet rising demand for West African oil shipments to Europe , George Los, senior market analyst at Charles R. Weber Co., a shipbroker in Greenwich, Connecticut , said by phone. That trade-route expansion helped Europe’s refineries cover a shortfall in Libyan crude, he said. The rates surge shows how parts of the tanker market are recovering from a slump after the industry’s biggest vessels earned the most in 3 1/2 years at the end of 2013, according to Baltic Exchange data. […]