Tanker expected to carry Russian diesel to US arrives with fertilizer – monitoring services
The tanker Minerva Zen, which was expected to be carrying diesel purchased from Russia, has already arrived in the US. However, according to monitoring services, the vessel is carrying liquid fertilizer rather than fuel.
According to Censor.NET, this is indicated by data from MarineTraffic.
Where is the vessel now?
According to MarineTraffic data, the tanker is at a port near Wilmington, North Carolina.
What the tanker was carrying
The TankerTrackers service reports that the Minerva Zen delivered liquid fertilizer to the US, specifically a urea-ammonium nitrate solution. Its import is permitted under the ban on hydrocarbon imports that the US introduced in March 2022. The importer in Wilmington is EuroChem North America.
The Live-AIS platform, which previously reported that the vessel was carrying diesel, deleted its earlier post.
Background
Reports of the possible arrival of a tanker carrying Russian diesel emerged on October 10–12, following Donald Trump’s announcement of an agreement with Putin on Russian diesel supplies to the US market and the temporary lifting of sanctions on Russian diesel. At the time, monitoring services suggested that the vessel carrying fuel could arrive in the US on those dates.
The diesel deal
- On 9 October, US President Donald Trump stated that he had spoken with Russian dictator Putin, with whom he had agreed on the supply of diesel fuel from Russia to US and global markets.
- According to him, Russia will "immediately" supply over 300,000 tonnes of diesel to the US and global markets, a further 500,000 tonnes in November, and another million tonnes "immediately afterwards".
- The US Treasury Department announced that, at Trump’s direction, the Office of Foreign Assets Control was immediately issuing a temporary general license authorizing Russian diesel supplies to the global market.
- In response, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called permission for Russia to sell petroleum products an "investment in war" and urged the US to hold firm talks with Moscow and impose sanctions under Lindsey Graham’s legislation.
- As a reminder, amid Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries, the Russian authorities repeatedly extended the ban on diesel exports until at least the end of October.
- The US president publicly stated that Ukraine should halt its strikes on Russia’s energy sector because they allegedly cause diesel shortages. According to him, the shortage arose specifically because of the war in Ukraine, rather than the US war against Iran.
- Similar statements have been made by other US politicians. For instance, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that Ukrainian strikes on the Russian energy sector were causing an energy crisis. He cited the war with Iran as the second cause of the crisis.
