[thackney]

Tell them to look at a map. Bulk commodities tend to be shipped to the nearest consumer — that’s the reason much of Alaska’s oil goes to Japan

I suggest you look at a map. Japan is about twice as far away from Valdez as our West Coast Refineries.

[Tallguy]

If you’re Japanese which is closer? Alaska or Kuwait?

[punchamullah]

Distance is really not that important in the crude shipping business.
You must consider that a year 2000 built 200 000 TDW VLCC procured from a Korean yard would have cost ~USD120M with a lead time of 1 year, whilst a similar Jones Act compliant ship from an American yard would cost ~USD300M with lead time of ~3 years. One of the main costs of tanker ownership/operation is capital amortisation, and you may readily see that the second option would substantially raise the dayrate/WS.
Further, an American crew would cost at least 4 to 5 times that of a Filipino crew with Japanese or Korean officers.