The U.S. refining surge is lifting tanker rates to the highest in at least three years as demand accelerates for vessels carrying the processed fuels to buyers in Latin America and the Caribbean. Tankers shipping about 38,000 metric tons of refined fuels to Rio de Janeiro from Houston earned an average of $31,050 a day last week, according to data from Clarkson Plc. (CKN) That’s the highest since at least December 2010, when the world’s largest shipbroker began publishing the data. The surge underscores how the U.S., which bans the export of most crude, is increasingly processing its abundance of the feedstock into fuels. Record numbers of vessels were hired last week to move oil products to Latin America and the Caribbean, according to Charles R. Weber, a shipbroker in Greenwich, Connecticut . “The best option is to export,” George Los, an analyst at Weber, said by phone today. […]