Tankers U-Turn As Legal Risks Scare Off Buyers –

On the night of October 9, 2026, President Donald Trump announced that he had just concluded a “highly successful” call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The two leaders had agreed, Trump said, “that Russia would immediately release more than 300,000 metric tons, or 2.24 million barrels, of diesel onto American and global markets, with another 500,000 tons, or 3.73 million barrels, to follow in November and a further million tons shortly thereafter.” The same day, the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued General License 135, authorizing the “sale, delivery, offloading, and importation of diesel fuel of Russian Federation origin” through April 7, 2027. Russia, for its half, partially lifted its own diesel export ban. The acknowledged goal was easy: to ease hovering U.S. diesel costs forward of the midterm elections. See Trump Strikes Russian Diesel Deal to Tackle Soaring Fuel Prices (Updated) – RedState and Trump Holds Off on New Russia Sanctions, Citing Ukraine Peace Talks – RedState for more.

So, how has that labored out?

As a coverage, it was a bust. Diesel costs had skyrocketed from a national average of $3.46 per gallon in early January, before the current struggle with Iran kicked off, to a peak of $6.52 around September 21. President Trump announced that sanctions on imported Russian diesel had been waived, even though the U.S. was exporting about 1.2 million barrels of diesel per day. As we all lived through the electoral rout of the GOP on November 4, we will say, without worry of contradiction, that it didn’t have the hoped-for impact on the midterms; see Vance’s Explanation for the GOP’s Midterm Disaster Is a Little Too Neat and Tidy – RedState and Hot Takes: Dems See Their Opportunity Over the Trump-Russia Diesel Deal – RedState.

But how about the execution? 

If the coverage’s desired outcome was sub-optimal, then the execution was an abject failure.

A tanker carrying Russian diesel that had briefly signaled the US made a U-turn about 400 nautical miles off New York, compounding uncertainty over deliveries to the North American market.

The Agioi Fanendes, hauling about 40,000 metric tons of ultralow-sulfur diesel, or nearly 300,000 barrels, began to transfer away from the US East Coast and has been dawdling in a zigzag sample since Monday, according to a port report and ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.

…

The Agioi Fanendes signaled New York after departing Russia’s Baltic port of Primorsk in late October and later switched its vacation spot to “for orders.” The tanker is still “proceeding for orders as the discharging port is not confirmed yet,” vessel supervisor Eastern Mediterranean Maritime Ltd. said in an electronic mail, repeating a earlier response to a query about the ship’s motion.

What makes this story vital is that the Maltese-flagged Agioi Fanendes was the last tanker carrying Russian diesel to show a U.S. vacation spot.

How it began

Three vessels started a voyage on October 22 after loading diesel at the Russian Baltic port of Primorsk, with a scheduled U.S. arrival date of November 7. The M/T Agioi Fanendes, the Sierra Leone-flagged M/T Leruo and the Russian-flagged M/T Talisman, all carried about 40,000 tons of diesel. The Leruo is under EU sanctions, and the Talisman is under U.S. sanctions. A fourth sanctioned tanker, the “shadow fleet” M/T Beast, adopted later, signaling “Atlantic” slightly than “New York” as its vacation spot.

If you’re doing the mathematics, you will notice that the 300,000 tons of diesel Trump promised for “immediate” release on the U.S. market in October was truly zero tons, as the shipments weren’t due in the U.S. until November. Even then, the five hundred,000 tons for November was truly a most of about 160,000 tons in 4 ships, with no other ships in the loading course of.

Barriers, you say?

Almost immediately, the shipments ran into a legal impediment that no short-term license might simply take away. In the spring of 2022, after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Congress handed the Ending Importation of Russian Oil Act. The statute prohibits the importation of Russian-origin vitality merchandise lined unless the President, after consulting Congress, certifies

(2)… that the Russian Federation—

(A) has reached an settlement to withdraw Russian forces and for the cessation of navy hostilities that is accepted by the free and unbiased authorities of Ukraine;

(B) poses no fast navy menace of aggression to any North Atlantic Treaty Organization member; and

(C) acknowledges the suitable of the people of Ukraine to independently and freely select their own authorities.

The law also required the import ban to stay in impact for 90 days after presidential certification. Needless to say, no such certification was offered.

This created an fast battle between the OFAC-issued import license and federal law. It probably opened anybody handling the Russian diesel — ports, banks, importers, terminals, distributors, and many others. — to large civil and felony penalties with a statute of limitations that would outlast the current administration. If New York Attorney General Tish James have been prepared to go after Trump over a generally accepted business observe, no sane individual would need to deal with these diesel shipments. New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill told New Jersey port and terminal operators “that purchasing or unloading the illegal Russian fuel currently bound for the east coast of the United States at the urging of the Trump Administration would likely subject businesses and individuals to harsh penalties, both civil and criminal.”

Ultimately, this would have ended up in court, and the administration, if it have been still in workplace, might need prevailed. However, in the meantime, your complete provide chain handling the Russian diesel would have been left dangling in the breeze, subject to arrest, imprisonment, and crippling civil lawsuits. Adding to the risk was that all the ships have been certain for New York, hardly a favorable place to assist a Trump coverage that conflicts with another law. Ultimately, no sellers may very well be discovered who have been prepared to deal with the Russian diesel at any price.

How it’s going

At this writing, the last of the tankers, M/T Agioi Fanendes, is making donuts in the Atlantic while signaling “for orders,” which suggests that it has a cargo but no purchaser. M/T Leruo reveals Manaus, Brazil, as its vacation spot. M/T Talisman is displaying El Dekheila, Egypt, as its vacation spot. M/T Beast is also displaying “for orders” and indicating that it’s headed for Brazil.

Was this goat-rope mandatory or even useful?

I’ve been a skeptic of this operation, as something more vital than a Hail Mary play reacting to midterm polling. If we’re exporting over a million barrels of diesel each day, then importing under 4 million barrels per month appeared negligible. While arguably that could have had some impression in New England and the Mid-Atlantic states, the only half of the nation that imports diesel (and that from Canada) because of a scarcity of refineries, it wasn’t going to transfer the needle on national costs. All it did was give an air of desperation and a attainable infusion of money into Russia’s struggling financial system so that it might better prosecute its unlawful struggle against Ukraine.

Perhaps the most noxious half of the exercise was blaming Ukraine’s strikes on Russian refineries for U.S. diesel costs when we remained a diesel exporter; see ‘He Better Damn Well Stop’: Trump Calls for New Ukraine President After Zelensky Hits Refinery – RedState.

🚨BREAKING: This new chart from @TheStudyofWar overlays Ukraine’s strikes on Russian refineries with the price of diesel fuel. There is NO CORRELATION between strikes on Russian refineries and spikes in the price of diesel right here in the U.S. They usually are not driving up costs right here. https://t.co/PzWXxTrf5z

— Marc Thiessen (@marcthiessen) October 16, 2026

If you go back farther, the outcomes are even more stark.

The caveat is that the quantity of refinery assaults comes from open-source stories and could also be decrease or increased than the full universe of assaults. It also contains assaults on refineries that don’t produce diesel. Also, a strike on a refinery is just that. It is not essentially profitable, nor does it imply that output stops or that the refinery wasn’t subsequently repaired.

In retrospect, as it did at the time, the diesel importation scheme looks as if a political stunt that never had any hope of producing outcomes at the pump.

If that have been all it was, it may very well be excused because everybody does it. But in this case,e Trump demanded that Ukraine put his home objectives above its own protection at a time when Trump was brazenly hostile to aiding Ukraine; see Zelensky Feels ‘Betrayed’ by US-Russia Diesel Deal. Trump Lit Him Up for Refinery Attacks. – RedState and Trump Announces Energy Ceasefire Between Russia and Ukraine – RedState. Diesel drives the struggle machine of every industrial nation. Attacking its manufacturing is a reputable goal. 

BREAKING: Trump to Zelensky: Zelensky has to do one factor. He has to stop knocking out diesel fuel in Russia. He is inflicting a scarcity of diesel. This isn’t carried out by the Middle East. This is completed by what’s taking place between Russia and Ukraine. https://t.co/hF9TlBbRlq

— Clash Report (@clashreport) September 13, 2026

The deal gave Russia sanctions reduction and, had the shipments occurred, we might’ve had the humiliation of watching three tankers, under sanctions from a number of nations, unloading diesel at some terminal in New York or New Jersey.

Hopefully, this unhappy episode is over. With your complete diesel provide chain afraid to contact Russian diesel and no shipments underway, that appears probably. The injury, however, is completed, and the best one can say is that it was the act of a lame-duck administration that the next White House can simply set apart.

Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump and War Secretary Pete Hegseth’s management, the warrior ethos is coming back to America’s navy.

Help us continue to report on Trump and Hegseth’s successes as they make our navy great again. Join RedState VIP and use promo code FIGHT to obtain 60% off your membership.