The long-running trade war between the U.S. and China is keeping ships from ferrying American oil far, far away. The distance that U.S. crude traveled by sea shrank in the second half of 2018 as fewer cargoes made the two-month journey to Asia, according to shipbroking firm Braemar ACM. That’s because China — the world’s biggest oil importer — turned away from American supplies, meaning exports from the Gulf Coast are increasingly confined to ports within the Atlantic Basin. Tankers hauling crude from the U.S. traveled an average of 7,530 nautical miles in the fourth quarter, down from 8,470 in the second quarter, according to Braemar. In the latter half of 2018, the average distance traveled by oil imported into China was 300 nautical miles less than at the end of 2017, the shipbroking firm said. Voyage lengths slumped as buyers in China avoided cargoes from the […]