RIYADH: Costs to hire Aframax oil tankers to travel to western Europe from one of Russia’s Baltic Sea ports almost tripled overnight as troops entered Ukraine, Bloomberg reported citing traders and shipbrokers. The price rise came on Thursday as the military incursion into the European country prevented crude buyers from finding shippers willing to send their vessels into Russian ports. Additionally, freight rates for cargo from the Persian Gulf to the US Gulf coast rose 12 percent on Thursday from a day earlier. This will benefit Middle East cargoes as an alternative that avoids the conflict zone around the Black Sea, according to the traders. US restrictions on currency clearing include carve-outs for energy payments, Bloomberg said. Some European lenders are scaling back exposure to Ukraine and Russia in a threat to the credit lines essential to trade, while some Chinese traders have already paused dealing in Russian barrels with the shadow of US sanctions lingering.