Tanker carrying Russian diesel heads for the United States
A Malta-flagged tanker with nearly 300,000 barrels of Russian diesel is sailing toward New York. The cargo is linked to the diesel supply deal US President Donald Trump announced with Moscow.
A tanker loaded with Russian diesel has set out for New York, according to data from the ship-tracking company Kpler. The voyage follows US President Donald Trump's announcement in early October of an agreement with Russia on diesel supplies, and the vessel could be the first cargo sent to the US under that deal. If the arrangement is carried out, the fuel could affect prices on the global market.
What is known about the vessel
The Malta-registered tanker Agioi Fanendes was spotted near Helsinki, the Finnish capital, on Friday. It has listed New York as its destination. Kpler data show it is carrying almost 300,000 barrels of diesel, loaded at a Russian oil terminal in the port of Primorsk. The ship is expected to reach the US East Coast around 7 November.
The tracking platform MarineTraffic says the vessel is owned by the Greek company Eastern Mediterranean Maritime and carries about 40,000 tonnes of ultra-low-sulphur diesel. According to its data, on 22 October the ship changed its AIS (automatic identification system) destination from Primorsk to New York, but on 23 October switched it again to "FOR ORDERS", so the final destination is not fully confirmed. It was last recorded sailing west through the Gulf of Finland at about 12.8 knots.
Trump's announcement and sanctions
On 9 October Trump wrote on his social network Truth Social about an "extremely successful" phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, in which they agreed on diesel deliveries to the US and the world market. According to Trump, Russian companies would immediately send more than 300,000 tonnes, another 500,000 in November, then a million tonnes shortly afterward, and later, depending on the condition of refineries, a further three million tonnes.
The US Treasury Department has issued a general licence suspending the application of US sanctions to Russian diesel until April 2027. Trump believes that Russian diesel entering the world market will help bring down prices, which have risen sharply because of the US-Israeli war against Iran.
