Trump Announced a Deal with Putin: Russia Will Supply Millions of Metric Tons of Diesel to the Market

Russia will supply millions of metric tons of diesel fuel to the global market; U.S. President Donald Trump said he reached an agreement to that effect during a phone call with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.

“An agreement has been reached that Russia will immediately supply more than 300,000 metric tons of diesel fuel to the U.S. and global markets, another 500,000 metric tons in November, and 1 million metric tons immediately thereafter,” Trump wrote on the social media platform TruthSocial, emphasizing that thereafter— “depending on the condition of [Russian] oil refineries producing diesel fuel”— — Russia had agreed “at short notice” to supply another 3 million metric tons of diesel to the market. Thus, a total of approximately 4.8 million metric tons of fuel will be released onto the market.

According to Trump, these shipments will help lower diesel prices in the U.S., including “for American farmers, ranchers, and truck drivers” — key voter groups ahead of the U.S. midterm elections in November, as Bloomberg noted. Earlier on Friday, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced that the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) “is immediately issuing a temporary general license authorizing the supply of Russian diesel fuel to the global market,” the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced, the agency notes.

Trump’s statements mean that a significant volume of Russian diesel fuel will enter the market, according to Bloomberg: 3 million metric tons is equivalent to 22.5 million barrels. According to the analytics firm Vortexa, the first shipment of 2.25 million barrels will account for more than 10% of total Russian diesel fuel exports in October 2025. Meanwhile, the U.S. last imported diesel fuel from Russia in March 2022, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Against the backdrop of this news, U.S. diesel futures fell to an intraday low and were trading around $4.67 per gallon, the agency notes. Earlier—following the outbreak of war in the Middle East and supply disruptions—retail diesel prices in the U.S. soared to a record $6.50 per gallon. This trend last week prompted Trump to announce his support for an export ban. However, a few hours after the “Group of Seven” (G7) announced an agreement to release 100 million barrels of crude oil and diesel fuel from strategic reserves over the course of four months, the U.S. president stated that no export restrictions were planned.

The protracted conflict between the U.S. and Iran, now in its eighth month, has significantly reduced energy supplies from the Gulf states, causing fuel prices to rise worldwide. Nevertheless, in recent months, Trump has repeatedly attributed the rise in prices in the U.S. not to the situation in the Middle East, but to Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine.

This article is being updated

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor