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Russia's product squeeze: ULSD crack near $92, loadings -81%

Published September 30, 20268 min read

Diesel-loading arms hang over an empty port berth while a tanker sits far offshore at dusk. — An idle loading berth evokes the squeeze on seaborne diesel exports. Illustration: MarketIntelLabs

Crude barely noticed, and that is the whole story. Brent (BZ=F) sits near $96 a barrel and WTI (CL=F) near $89.70, per Yahoo Finance as of 06:35 UTC 2026-09-30, not far from where they traded before this escalation round, but the refined-product complex is pricing a different war entirely. Follow our crude oil coverage for the fuller energy thread. ULSD's crack against Brent sits near $92.44 a barrel (per the desk's 09-25 factsheet, citing CME), against about $30 a year earlier, and Russian seaborne diesel and gasoil loadings have collapsed to around 150 kb/d, down 81% from the five-year average per Vortexa via the desk's 09-18 factsheet. The story is products, not crude.

Key Takeaways ULSD's…

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