The first tanker carrying Russian diesel fuel is scheduled to depart for the United States on October 22. The vessel will transport 40,000 tonnes of diesel, with the contract reportedly in the final stages of completion.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak announced the planned shipment.
According to Novak, the contract is nearing completion, and additional fuel shipments are planned after the first vessel.
Ukraine’s Presidential Commissioner for Sanctions Policy, Vladyslav Vlasiuk, compared the planned shipment with US diesel consumption and exports, using September–October data from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).
According to his calculations, 40,000 tonnes of diesel is equivalent to approximately 300,000 barrels.
The United States consumes around 4 million barrels of diesel fuel per day. This means the entire Russian tanker shipment would cover approximately 1 hour and 48 minutes of US consumption.
Meanwhile, the United States itself exports around 1.5 million barrels of diesel per day. The planned Russian shipment is equivalent to less than five hours of US diesel exports.
Vlasiuk also highlighted the time required to transport the fuel. He estimates that the journey from Russia’s port of Ust-Luga to US terminals would take approximately 2.5–3 weeks. During that time, the United States would export more than 4 million tonnes of its own diesel fuel — roughly 100 times the amount expected to arrive from Russia.
“So, one of the world’s largest diesel exporters is buying diesel from an aggressor country to cover two hours of its own demand?” Vlasiuk wrote.
Vlasiuk noted that his calculations were based on EIA statistics.
