Australia says it won’t buy Russian fuel despite Trump’s diesel agreement

Australia has no need to buy fuel from Russia and said that purchases from there would remain barred so that the country did not benefit from the invasion of Ukraine.

“We don’t need or want Russian fuel in Australia,” Chris Bowen, Australia’s minister for climate change and energy, said on Saturday at a press conference in western Sydney. “We do not want Vladimir Putin to benefit from this war in the Middle East. What the United States does is a matter for them, but we won’t be changing our approach.”

President Donald Trump announced on Friday a series of cargoes beginning this month totalling about 13.5 million barrels initially. He is working with Russian President Putin to release Russian diesel supplies into global markets, a move that upends years of sanctions as the White House seeks ways to tame soaring fuel prices ahead of the US midterm election.

Bowen also said that Australia had 43 days’ worth of petrol, two days more than a week earlier, while diesel stocks sat at 31 days’ worth, one day less.