Russia says it is ready to supply the United States and other buyers with as much diesel as they want from the fuel it plans to export, following President Donald Trump's agreement with Vladimir Putin. Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak made the offer in an interview published on October 25.
The promise comes with American diesel prices still above $6 a gallon and a first Russian cargo reportedly heading to New York. Trump has made cheaper fuel a priority ahead of the November 3 midterms, particularly for farmers, ranchers and truckers.
What Russia is offering
Asked how much diesel Russia could supply, Novak told journalist Pavel Zarubin in an interview for Vesti, in translation:
"As much as our partners want, frankly, from the volume we will be exporting. We can supply all of it."
His answer referred specifically to Russia's export supply. RIA Novosti, reporting the remarks on Sunday, said Novak had previously put possible October deliveries to the United States and world markets at 500,000 metric tons.
Trump announced the agreement on October 9 after speaking with Putin. He said Russia would immediately supply more than 300,000 tons to American and global markets, followed by another 500,000 tons in November and 1 million tons immediately afterward.
A further 3 million tons would follow within a short period, Trump said, depending on the condition of Russian refineries. Those promised volumes cover several stages of the agreement and include buyers outside the United States.
The administration also temporarily eased restrictions on Russian diesel. According to the Council on Foreign Relations' October 19 account of the agreement, the Treasury Department issued a license suspending sanctions on those deliveries until April 2027.
A first shipment is on its way
Fox Business reported on October 24 that a tanker carrying 40,000 tons of Russian diesel had left for New York earlier in the week. Its report described the shipment as traveling to the United States, with no confirmed arrival given.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that the first tanker had sailed to customers and that regular supplies would continue. Russian officials have therefore moved from discussing possible contracts to describing shipments underway.
The first cargo is much smaller than the volumes announced in the deal. It amounts to 8% of the 500,000 tons Novak said Russian companies could supply to American and global markets in October. More tankers and repeated deliveries would be needed to reach that figure.
Diesel is still expensive in America
The latest weekly figures from the U.S. Energy Information Administration put the national average for on-highway diesel at $6.276 a gallon on October 19, including taxes. That was up 9.7 cents from October 12 and $2.656 from a year earlier. The next weekly release is scheduled for October 27.
That leaves the fuel bill high for businesses that move goods, run farm equipment or operate construction machinery. The weekly average also rose after the deal was announced, even as officials promised relief.
Russia's ability to keep supplying fuel is part of the concern. Ukrainian attacks have damaged its refining capacity, while the time left before the American election is short.
Vijay Vaitheeswaran, senior fellow and director of the Energy and Climate Program at the Council on Foreign Relations, raised those limits in the organization's October 19 assessment.
"I don't see this as very likely to have a significant impact on global diesel markets."
The agreement has also drawn criticism from European officials and a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers over the revenue it could generate for Russia during its war in Ukraine, according to that account. Trump is counting on additional supply to bring prices down; critics question both the likely savings and the decision to ease pressure on Moscow.