At least two Russian diesel tankers have listed Turkey and Brazil as destinations in the past few days, suggesting that Russia has resumed exports to its main former customers following agreements with the United States.
Reuters reports this, citing data from shipping companies Kpler and LSEG.
According to shipping services, the tanker Leruo, after leaving the Russian Baltic port of Primorsk on October 16, indicated Manaus, Brazil, as its destination. The tanker Dolunay, which left Primorsk with a cargo of diesel fuel on October 14, was heading to Alanya, Turkey. Each of the two tankers is carrying 300 000 barrels of diesel fuel.
Russian diesel fuel has also started to arrive in Morocco. According to Kpler, between October 11 and 20, shipments of Russian diesel fuel amounted to about 210 000 tons, or 1.56 million barrels.
What preceded
On October 9, the US President Donald Trump reported that he had reached an agreement with Vladimir Putin to supply Russian diesel fuel to the US and world markets. At the time, he explained this by saying that this agreement, together with US control over the Strait of Hormuz, would help to quickly lower diesel prices in the US and the world.
According to Trump, Russia would initially supply 300 000 tons of fuel, followed by another 500 000 tons in November, and then another million tons.
The US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said that one of the reasons for the agreements with Russia was to encourage the Kremlin to end the war against Ukraine.
On October 17, Trump suspended the “hell of sanctions against Russia” law. The law gave the right to impose tariffs against countries that buy Russian energy.
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