HOUSTON, March 20 (Reuters) - The shipping industry is

consuming an additional 100,000 barrels per day of fuel to sail

longer distances needed to avoid traversing the Red Sea, Vitol

Chief Executive Officer Russell Hardy said on Wednesday.

Total distance traveled by ships is about 3% more than it

was before Yemen's Houthi group started attacking shipping,

Hardy said.

Tanker traffic in the Red Sea is higher today than it was

five years ago, he said, but global conflicts have shifted

global trade flows.

"We have had to re-orientate so much all over," he said at a

panel during the CERAWeek conference in Houston, Texas. "There

is a lot more unusual movement happening today than what was

happening in 2019."