ANKARA — Turkey says it has a claim on the Russian diesel that Moscow and Washington agreed to release on October 9, yet the only public account of that arrangement is a single television answer from its energy minister. Neither the American license nor the Russian government’s statement names Turkey.
Alparslan Bayraktar told the Turkish broadcaster Kanal7 on Sunday that “Russia has reached an agreement with [US President Donald] Trump on diesel fuel. During our meetings, it was agreed that Turkey would receive a share of this volume,” in Sputnik’s English rendering, which the agency published at 18:46 UTC. As TEH reported on Wednesday, Moscow said no Russian diesel contract with the US had been signed.
Bayraktar was in Moscow for Russian Energy Week on Friday, when the Russian government says he held a working meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak. Sputnik does not say which meetings he meant. The government’s readout describes “a broad range of issues relating to bilateral cooperation in the fuel and energy sector” and quotes Novak on gas, oil and “other natural resources.” It does not mention diesel.
What exists on paper is American. The Office of Foreign Assets Control issued General License 135 on October 9, authorizing transactions related to “the sale, delivery, offloading, or importation, including importation into the United States, of diesel fuel of Russian Federation origin” until 12:01 a.m. EDT on April 7, 2027. By TEH’s arithmetic that is 180 days from issue and 171 from Bayraktar’s remarks. The wording is not confined to cargoes bound for the US, though nothing TEH has read says whether a Turkish buyer needs more.
Russia’s own figures are looser. A government statement on October 10 said the partial lifting of its export ban allows “500,000 tonnes of diesel fuel to be supplied to the global market at the current stage.” Novak’s schedule, as TASS relays it, is 300,000 tonnes in October, 500,000 in November and 1 million in December, which TEH sums to 1.8 million tonnes, with monthly supplies later reaching 3 million. The 500,000 and 300,000 figures do not obviously match, and neither is split by buyer.
Washington is less settled. On October 16 Trump waived the Graham Act duties in an order that does not mention diesel, as TEH’s Graham Act waiver report details.
The Sputnik report gives no tonnage, price, buyer or start date. Whether Turkish state companies or private refiners would take the fuel, and under whose contract, is unstated. TEH found no Russian confirmation of a Turkish allocation, so for now the share exists in one sentence.
