Two tankers headed to US under Trump-Putin diesel deal change course

Two tankers carrying Russian diesel fuel to the United States have changed course, the Financial Times reported.

The Russian tanker Talisman and the Sierra Leone-flagged tanker Leruo, owned by a Hong Kong company, no longer list the U.S. Atlantic coast as their destination, the Financial Times said. Both tankers are under Western sanctions.

The Leruo changed its destination to Brazil as early as Monday, November 2, while the Talisman moved from the Atlantic Ocean into the Mediterranean Sea and is now off the coast of Algeria. The Talisman‘s destination field shows the status “awaiting orders,” which, according to FT, likely means the cargo does not yet have a confirmed buyer or destination port.

A third tanker, the Agioi Fanendes, owned by the Greek shipping company Eastern Mediterranean Maritime, shows the same status but is still heading toward the U.S. Its owner previously told FT that “proceeding for orders as discharging port is not confirmed yet.”

Another sanctioned tanker, the Beast, owned by companies from the Seychelles, loaded fuel at the port of Primorsk on October 27 and is still holding course for the U.S., according to the outlet.

The independent Russian investigative outlet Agentstvo was first to notice that the tankers had changed course.

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin held a phone call on October 9, after which they announced that Russia and the United States had agreed on supplies of Russian diesel fuel to the American and global markets. The U.S. Treasury Department issued a temporary license permitting the global sale of Russian diesel fuel, circumventing U.S. sanctions. Reuters reported that the first tanker (the Agioi Fanendes) carrying Russian diesel fuel left the port of Primorsk on October 22 and is expected to deliver 40,000 tons of fuel to New York by November 7. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the Russia–U.S. diesel deal “an investment in the war.”

Trump said the deal with Putin would lower fuel prices in the U.S., but analysts and experts predicted that was unlikely to happen. The Wall Street Journal, citing data from the American Automobile Association, wrote in late October that fuel prices in the U.S. had risen by another seven cents since the diesel deal with Russia was announced.