(Bloomberg) <\m> OPEC’s plans to trim production by 1.2 million barrels a day may increase demand for oil-tankers as consuming countries are forced to import from further away, shipbrokers Poten & Partners said.The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which pumps 40 percent of the world’s oil, said it would reduce output starting Nov. 1 to halt a slide in prices.

OPEC’s decision, which has weakened the cost of hiring oil supertankers from the Persian Gulf by as much as 34 percent this month, may benefit rates as consuming countries draw cargoes from other suppliers to plug the oil deficit, New York-based Poten said in a report on October 27.

“Expect the market to rebound in the face of crude flow changes” that increase “ton-mile demand,” a measure of how far tankers must travel and therefore of ship availability, Poten said.

“When supplies are curtailed from one location, the crude oil ends up coming from another direction.”

Western refiners reliant on Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and Venezuela may switch to more distant supplies from Algeria, Angola and the Caspian Sea, according to Poten.

Asian companies may also turn from Saudi and eastern Russia to Angolan and Caspian sources.

Freight rates for very large crude carriers, or VLCCs, on the benchmark route to Singapore have lost 34 percent this month, according to London’s Baltic Exchange.