Marrakech – Russia has resumed loading diesel exports from its Baltic port of Primorsk, with a cargo now bound for Morocco. Data from the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) showed Wednesday that a tanker carrying roughly 40,000 metric tons of ultra-low-sulfur diesel loaded on Tuesday and headed toward the kingdom, as reported by Reuters.
The shipment follows an agreement between Washington and Moscow to supply global markets with fuel. US President Donald Trump noted last week that Russia had agreed to deliver diesel to international markets in an effort to lower fuel prices, while Moscow partially lifted its ban on diesel exports from October 10 following the agreement.
Trump is keen to lower US diesel prices ahead of the US midterm elections on November 3.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed Thursday that Russian diesel had begun reaching global markets. He expected the supplies to help stabilize oil markets, though he cautioned that they would not be enough to fully stabilize them.
Trump stated Friday that Russia would immediately supply more than 300,000 metric tons, or 2.25 million barrels, of diesel to US and global markets. That is less than a day’s supply for the US transport sector alone, which uses around 2.94 million barrels daily, according to US Energy Information Administration data.
Trump added that Russia would supply another 500,000 tons in November and a further 1 million tons “immediately thereafter,” a volume that amounts to less than four days of US transport demand.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak confirmed Monday that Russia had partially lifted its diesel export ban as of October 10. He projected that the country could raise diesel exports to between 3 million and 3.5 million tons per month by year-end, its usual export volume for this fuel.
The deal drew sharp criticism. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, European officials, and some of Trump’s fellow Republicans opposed the arrangement. Russia dismissed the European objections as “cynical,” pointing to the continent’s continued purchases of Russian oil and liquefied natural gas.
For now, the shipping data identifies Morocco only as the reported destination. It does not establish that the tanker has arrived or that Moroccan customs has cleared the cargo.
The cargo approaches at a moment of renewed increases at Moroccan fuel stations. The per-liter price exceeded MAD 16.30 ($1.63) in early October, with differences recorded between distribution networks and cities.
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Morocco’s purchases of Russian diesel are not new. Government spokesperson Mustapha Baitas addressed them on March 2, 2023, providing figures that put the Russian share of Moroccan diesel imports at 9% in 2020, 5% in 2021, and 9% in 2022.
He explained that the country had imported Russian diesel under successive governments through a liberalized market. His remarks came amid public controversy over discounted Russian fuel and questions over whether consumers were benefiting from the lower costs.
The matter reached Parliament. In 2023, the Party of Progress and Socialism (PPS) filed question No. 7002 on reported Russian diesel imports during the first quarter, asking about declared quantities, prices paid, distributor margins, and consumer benefit. A second question, No. 10208, revisited the shipments in March 2024.
Official statistics show Morocco’s continued reliance on imported fuel. The Ministry of Energy Transition recorded 6.857 million metric tons of diesel and 892,000 tons of gasoline imported in 2025. The Foreign Exchange Office reported that diesel and fuel-oil imports reached about MAD 51.5 billion ($5.15 billion) in 2025, down from MAD 57 billion ($5.7 billion) a year earlier.
The sourcing picture is contested. An April 2026 Médias24 analysis of Office des Changes data found that Russia disappeared from Morocco’s recorded direct diesel suppliers after 2023, with Saudi Arabia (33.7%), Spain (22.1%), the United States (15.2%), and India (8%) leading by import value in 2025.
Maritime tracking points the other way: the energy outlet Attaqa reported that Morocco received roughly 40,000 barrels per day of Russian petroleum products in 2025, more than double the prior year. The two datasets are not interchangeable, since the maritime figures cover multiple refined products rather than diesel recorded by country.
For gasoline, Russia does not appear among Morocco’s principal suppliers, with Spain leading at 21.9% of import value in 2025.
Trade has also moved in the opposite direction. On July 31, Reuters reported that Russia received about 30,000 tons of gasoline loaded at Tangier and shipped to the Arctic port of Murmansk, after Ukrainian drone attacks cut Russian refining capacity. Loading in Morocco, however, does not mean the fuel was produced there.
