Freight rates to move clean products on medium-range vessels between Northwest Europe and West Africa have risen to their strongest level against comparable deliveries between NWE and the US Atlantic Coast in 17 months, as the arbitrage window for shipping gasoline to the US from Europe closes.

The US, which used to import a lot of its gasoline from Europe, is now refining more oil locally, amid the boom in crude output in the country.

Platts assessed NWE-WAF rates Thursday at Worldscale 100, basis 37,000 mt, against w70 for shipments out of NWE to the US east coast.

The last time this premium was higher than w30 was on April 30, 2012, when it was assessed by Platts at w50. Typically, the premium for WAF deliveries has been in a range of w10-15.

The medium-range tanker Star Falcon was reported on subjects Thursday at w100 to load a 37,000 mt cargo around October 18 from Milford Haven to West Africa.

According to shipping sources, shipowners are asking for strong premiums to go to West Africa, because once they have discharged their cargo there, the ships generally ballast back.