Russia could export more diesel than the volumes set out by US President Donald Trump, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Monday. His remarks followed Trump’s announcement on Friday that Moscow had agreed to supply diesel to global markets, after the US administration temporarily lifted sanctions on Russian fuel that were designed to cut the Kremlin’s war revenue.
Novak, President Vladimir Putin’s lead official on oil, told state broadcaster Rossiya-24 that “Russia has the capacity to increase diesel fuel exports”, adding that the outcome would depend on how events unfold. He said exports could reach 3.0 to 3.5 million tonnes a month by the end of the year, a return to pre-crisis levels. Before Ukraine’s 2024 to 2025 drone campaign against Russian refineries, monthly diesel exports exceeded 3 million tonnes. Shipments have since collapsed because of those strikes and self-imposed limits on overseas sales, although Moscow has kept supplying diesel under government agreements, mainly to Central Asia, where industry sources put last month’s exports at 427,000 tonnes.
Trump said Russia would immediately supply more than 300,000 tonnes, or 2.25 million barrels, of diesel to the US and global markets, followed by 500,000 tonnes in November and 1 million tonnes after that. US Energy Information Administration data show the initial amount is less than a single day of US transport-sector use, which runs at about 2.94 million barrels a day. Novak said the deal would partly rebalance global supply and demand and that diesel prices had already fallen by around 5 to 6%.
Rising diesel prices are hurting American truckers and farmers, making fuel a sensitive issue ahead of the US midterm elections on 3 November. Three people familiar with a meeting last Friday told Reuters that Trump’s envoys had told Ukrainian officials the deal was meant to bring Russia back to negotiations after earlier attempts to start sustained talks failed. Some US lawmakers argue the arrangement hands Moscow money to keep fighting without requiring concessions from Putin, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called it a reversal of years of Western efforts to isolate Russia’s economy. On Monday, Zelensky said Russian strikes had hit at least six energy targets in a recent wave of attacks.
Novak also disputed US estimates putting the value of Russian resources sold to Europe at $250 billion, saying the figure was significantly understated. He cited a total of $320.7 billion for energy supplied to European Union countries from 2022 to the present.
