Why are oil traders refusing to buy Russian diesel after Trump-Putin deal?

At least three tankers carrying Russian diesel to the United States have changed course, casting doubt over US President Donald Trump’s October deal with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. Nearly a month after Trump agreed to let Russia release diesel stocks to the US and global markets, despite existing sanctions, zero diesel has reached the US, where prices have nearly doubled since the start of the US-Israel war on Iran. Russia has sent out a total of four tankers loaded with diesel since the deal was agreed. The Russian tanker Talisman and the Sierra Leone-flagged Leruo left the Baltic port of Primorsk last month, with the US East Coast as their declared destination. As of Thursday, however, one was heading towards Brazil and the other into the Mediterranean, according to marine analytics firm Kpler and the vessel-tracking site MarineTraffic. A third tanker, still in the North Atlantic, has changed its destination from New York to “for orders”, leaving its unloading point open. The Financial Times also reported that Beast, a sanctioned Seychelles-owned tanker that was loaded at the Russian port of Primorsk in late October, has set sail towards the US and is currently signalling “Atlantic”. It also reversed years of US policy after Washington banned imports of Russian energy following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Department of the Treasury has since issued a temporary sanctions exemption, much to the ire of a cross-party group of lawmakers in the US Congress who passed a new sanctions package in the name of the late, pro-Ukraine Senator Lindsey Graham in September. Despite the US Treasury temporarily authorising Russian diesel sales that would normally fall under sanctions, Congress’s ban on Russian energy imports remains in place, leaving a high level of uncertainty for traders.