Russia expects first diesel contracts with US in ‘next few days’: official

Add ARY News on GoogleFollow on Google DiscoverPetrol trucks are parked at Volodarskaya LPDS production facility owned by Transneft oil pipeline operator in the village of Konstantinovo in the Moscow region, Russia June 8, 2022. REUTERS/Maxim ShemetovAAResizeRussia indicated Wednesday that the first contracts on providing diesel to the United States would be signed in the coming days, following US President Donald Trump’s decision to ease sanctions on Russian diesel.

Trump last week announced an agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin to allow the country’s diesel onto global markets in an effort to curb prices, which have soared in the wake of the Middle East war.

“It will all happen in the next few days,” Kirill Dmitriev, the Kremlin’s special envoy on economic cooperation, was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies when asked when the first contracts might be signed.

“We are in very close, hourly contact with the American side, and everything is moving very quickly.”

Deputy Prime Minister for Energy, Alexander Novak, said that “we are currently working with American colleagues, at both the ministry and corporate levels, on supply contracts”.

“Deliveries will be made to global markets, including directly to the United States,” Novak said, adding that Russian supplies could “reach 3-3.5 million tonnes by the end of the year” — the same level as before Western sanctions were imposed.

He maintained that represented “10 percent of the global market”, and would help bring down energy prices.

Energy prices have been soaring globally since the United States and Israel attacked Iran in late February, prompting Tehran to block off the Strait of Hormuz, a vital route for oil and gas shipments.

Novak welcomed the agreement, which he said would mean “additional tax revenue for the (Russian) budget”, as well as “investment opportunities, at a time when Russian military spending has skyrocketed since the start of its offensive in Ukraine in 2022.

The US-Russia diesel deal has drawn sharp criticism from Ukraine and Western allies, but Trump’s administration has slammed the “hypocrisy” of Europeans, accusing them of having continued to purchase large quantities of Russian fossil fuels.

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