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The first shipment of Russian diesel bound for the US, as part of a deal brokered with Moscow by President Trump, is aboard a tanker bound for New York, according to ship-tracking data.
The Malta-flagged tanker “Agoio Fanades” was loaded with 40,000 metric tons of ultra-low-sulfur diesel in Russia’s Baltic port of Primorsk on Thursday and is expected to arrive in the US on November 7 – four days after the Midterm elections, according to the LSEG.
The identities of the buyer and seller were not immediately known.
Energy Aspects, a market intelligence firm, said that it had confirmed with its industry sources that the ship was packed with 298,000 barrels of diesel in Primorsk, NBC reported.
Diesel averages around 7.4 barrels per ton.
The US consumes roughly 3.8 million barrels per day, meaning that Friday’s shipment would only satisfy about 7.8% of the country’s daily demand.
The Russian diesel will be the first imported by the US since former President Joe Biden banned US imports of Russian energy products in 2022 following Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine.
Trump announced earlier this month that he was lifting the US ban in an effort to combat skyrocketing fuel prices ahead of the November midterm elections — a decision that outraged some US lawmakers and
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has pushed for stronger sanctions on Russian oil products.
The president said Russia would immediately export 300,000 metric tons, or 2.25 million barrels, to the US and global markets, followed by 500,000 tons in November and 1 million tons “immediately thereafter”.
The Treasury Department issued a general license allowing any company to buy or sell Russian diesel without fear of US sanctions.
A Kremlin spokesperson confirmed Friday that the first ship under the new deal had departed, but did not say whether it was bound for the US market or elsewhere.
“As far as I’m aware, there have already been reports from the Ministry of Energy that the first tanker has, in fact, set sail for its recipients, its buyers. Further shipments will continue at a steady pace from here on,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov revealed on a daily conference call.