India, Oct. 15 -- Oil shipping costs have jumped sharply, making it more expensive to transport crude oil from the United States to Japan. The oil supertanker Esteem Explorer is scheduled to sail from the US to Japan in late November, carrying around 2 million barrels of crude oil. The journey is expected to cost $81 million, compared with an average of $9.1 million for the same trip last year.

The cost of shipping each barrel of oil has increased to $40.50, around nine times last year's rate. This means that transporting crude oil is becoming a much bigger expense for companies. While higher oil prices are already worrying consumers, rising transportation costs are adding further pressure to the final price of oil and its products, Reut...