Benchmark day rates for oil tankers at highest since June Tanker surplus in Persian Gulf matches lowest level in a year Oil tanker rates jumped to a four month high as traders booked the most cargoes for the time of year on record, offering signs that Middle East producers could be adding barrels to the market just before OPEC embarks on its deepest output cuts in eight years. Day rates on shipments from the Middle East to Asia jumped to $46,896 while a surplus of crude tankers in the Persian Gulf matched the lowest level in a year, Baltic Exchange and Bloomberg surveys showed. Traders booked the most one-off, or spot, cargoes for the month of October in at least 12 years, according Galbraith’s Ltd., a London-based shipbroker. “The suspicion is that there’s an extraordinarily high output from the Middle East ahead of the expected cut decision in November,” […]