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

Zero Russian diesel has reached the US under the deal as buyers fear legal action, with Congress’s ban on Russian energy imports still in place. 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.

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”.