Russia to supply 300,000 tons of diesel now, with more later, Trump says Move comes ahead of November 3 midterm elections US diesel prices hit $6.28 a gallon on Thursday, AAA says Zelenskiy says gifts to Putin will not bring peace

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[–] tardigrade@scribe.disroot.org 13 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Either Putin must be very desperate to discuss this with his secretary in the White House or there is something I don't see.

Trump reportedly agreed with Putin to "immediately" supply more than 0.3m tons of diesel fuel into the U.S. and global markets, another 0.5m tons in November, followed by another 1m ton and then an additional 3m tons of diesel "within a short period of time," based on the condition of Russian refineries.

That's a total of 4,8m tons over the next months. Russia measures diesel quantities in tons, so the 4.8m tons are equal to a bit more than 35.5m barrels, the measure used by world markets.

Even if this agreement materializes - which is everything but sure imho - it must be a complete nothing burger.

Refineries in the U.S. are churning out some four to five million barrels every day, according to EIA, the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The majority of this volume - around 3.6m barrels - is consumed domestically, the rest is exported.

So even if Russia is able to deliver this volume of 35m barrels, the volume is equivalent to what is consumed domestically in the U.S. within less than just 10 days. In the world market this volume is next to nothing.

This must be a nothing burger imo. But I am not an expert for oil markets, so maybe someone with more expertise can give me a hint.

[–] Malica@lemmy.zip 2 points 6 days ago

Nothing burger deals are a big part of "the art of the deal". He considers the matter closed now.

[–] swe@sh.itjust.works 17 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I think the bigger issue is that this can be used to label Ukrainian drone strikes as hostile actions to American interests and as an excuse for the US to roll back sanctions, stop weapon transfers, and even provide support to Putin.

It's a very cynical thought that I hope is impossible but with how the American leadership is behaving lately I unfortunately wouldn't write it off.

[–] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 week ago

Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head there. He’s wanted to be friendlier with Russia since he got back in. This is just him moving in that direction.

[–] Flower@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 week ago

I'm expecting Trump to make an advanced payment for all that diesel and it'll take months for the stuff to actually arrive if at all, so it's an excuse to support Putin financially. Meanwhile it's a good news show to say he's tackling the price issues at home and the result will come in any day now.

[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

The actual consequence doesn’t matter as much as the show for voters. This has always been the case, unfortunately.