Reported by Al Jazeera
Zero Russian diesel has reached the US under the deal as buyers fear legal action, with Congress’s ban on Russian energy imports still in place.
At least three tankers carrying Russian diesel to the United States have changed course, casting doubt over US President Donald Trump’s October deal with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.
Nearly a month after Trump agreed to let Russia release diesel stocks to the US and global markets, despite existing sanctions, zero diesel has reached the US, where prices have nearly doubled since the start of the US-Israel war on Iran.
More from the original report
Russia has sent out a total of four tankers loaded with diesel since the deal was agreed.
The Russian tanker Talisman and the Sierra Leone-flagged Leruo left the Baltic port of Primorsk last month, with the US East Coast as their declared destination.
As of Thursday, however, one was heading towards Brazil and the other into the Mediterranean, according to marine analytics firm Kpler and the vessel-tracking site MarineTraffic.
A third tanker, still in the North Atlantic, has changed its destination from New York to “for orders”, leaving its unloading point open.
The Financial Times also reported that Beast, a sanctioned Seychelles-owned tanker that was loaded at the Russian port of Primorsk in late October, has set sail towards the US and is currently signalling “Atlantic”.
Trump first announced the agreement following a call with Putin on October 9. He said Russia would make more than 300,000 tonnes of diesel available immediately to US and global markets.
Long-range product tankers, which carry diesel supplies, can carry up to about 100,000 tonnes of diesel at a time.
Another 500,000 tonnes would follow in November, then 1 million tonnes “immediately thereafter”, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
The agreement Trump brokered with Putin allows Russian diesel to be sold, delivered, unloaded and imported until April 7. It came after Trump blamed Ukraine for causing diesel shortages by targeting Russian energy facilities amid the Russia-Ukraine war.
It also reversed years of US policy after Washington banned imports of Russian energy following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in…