OSLO, Nov 10 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s energy chief said on Tuesday the US was confident that the first cargo of Russian diesel headed for the US would eventually get sold in the global market despite the tanker carrying it coming to a halt recently.
Shipping data showed on Tuesday that the Agioi Fanendes has come to a halt off the US east coast. The halt followed warnings by a US governor and lawmakers about the legality of the ship’s landing in the US.
US Energy Secretary Chris Wright, asked whether he was concerned that the vessel, which had originally signalled it was headed to New York, had been turned away, said he had no worries.
“Not at all. No, it’ll go to another port,” Wright told reporters in New Orleans. “We just want that diesel going into the world markets.”
President Donald Trump last month announced a surprise deal with Moscow to import diesel from Russia to help lower prices at the pumps ahead of this month’s US midterm elections.
New Jersey’s Democratic Governor Mikie Sherrill this month warned local port officials and terminal operators against accepting Russian diesel, saying those shipments would break federal law. Sherrill said importing Russian diesel could expose businesses and individuals using New Jersey ports to harsh civil and criminal penalties.
Senators from both parties said last month that US law bars imports of energy from Russia until it ends aggression against Ukraine.
The Malta-flagged tanker was loaded with 40,000 metric tons of ultra-low sulphur diesel in Russia’s Baltic port of Primorsk on October 22, LSEG shipping data showed, with an expected delivery date of November 7.
But Eastmed, the Greece-based company which manages the tanker, said a week later that the vessel was proceeding awaiting orders and that a port of discharge had not yet been nominated or finalised.
“Nothing has changed regarding the vessel’s destination, she is still awaiting orders,” Greece-based vessel manager Eastmed told Reuters on Tuesday.
Vessels may change their declared destination or revert to “for orders” status more than once during a voyage when a prospective deal falls through, plans change or the operator does not wish to declare its intended destination.
Other tankers carrying Russian diesel which had signalled the US Atlantic Coast as their destination later altered course, shipping data showed.
RUSSIAN IMPORTS BANNED IN 2022
Former President Joe Biden had imposed a ban on US imports of Russian oil and petroleum products in 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Trump in approving the deal last month waived parts of a new US sanctions law on Moscow and said Russia would immediately export 300,000 tons, or 2.25 million barrels, to the US and global markets, followed by 500,000 tons in November and 1 million tons “immediately thereafter”.
Ellie Valencia, a senior analyst at Vortexa, said the ship’s speed had come down from 10 knots several days ago to about 2 knots currently.
“What you can interpret from the speed is directly related to the status of the ship which is “FOR ORDERS”, most likely meaning that it doesn’t yet have a specific buyer,” Valencia said.
(Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis in Oslo and Renee Maltezou in Athens, Timothy Gardner in Washington DC, Arathy Somasekhar in Houston and Curtis Williams in New Orleans; writing by Timothy Gardner, editing by Terje Solsvik, Jason Neely, Barbara Lewis and Deepa Babington)
