WASHINGTON: US oil cargoes transiting the Panama Canal are close to a four-year high, as Asian refiners rush to import American crude in lieu of Mideast supplies strangled by the weeks-long disruption to Strait of Hormuz shipping. 

US oil exports via the canal – the shortest route between the Gulf Coast and Asia –have surpassed 200,000 barrels a day, close to the most since July 2022.