The Kremlin said on Monday that conditions on global energy markets were deteriorating, particularly as a result of instability in the Middle East, and that the ban on diesel exports should help expand Russia’s domestic market, Reuters reports.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was responding to a question about US President Donald Trump’s call on his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, to halt attacks on Russian refineries. Moscow welcomes Trump’s move, Peskov told reporters, adding that Russian officials would discuss the resumption of diesel exports once domestic fuel supplies had been secured.
„Mr Zelensky has one thing to do. He must stop hitting diesel in Russia. Attack targets, but not diesel, because that is causing a diesel shortage,” Donald Trump said on Sunday in a brief exchange with reporters on the second day of his stay in Ireland, which he spent at his golf course in Doonbeg. The US president made the remarks as the price of diesel exceeded $6 per gallon (3.78 litres) for the first time on Friday, driven higher by the war in the Middle East and Ukraine’s attacks on Russian refineries.
In July, Russia banned diesel exports as part of a broader package of measures to support the domestic fuel market. Russia also banned diesel and petrol exports by companies that do not produce fuels but resell them, as well as jet-fuel exports.
In 2022, diesel was Russia’s most important exported petroleum product, with deliveries of approximately 35 million tonnes, nearly three-quarters of which were delivered via oil pipelines. Also in 2022, Russia exported 4.8 million tonnes of petrol.
AGERPRES
