Do We Need To Plan For A Diesel Export Ban?

25 September 2026: A diesel export ban would reshuffle trade flows. High fuel prices and upcoming elections are a bad combination, and politicians will do (almost) anything to prevent getting blamed for it. Instead, they would like to be seen doing something about it. Record high U.S. diesel prices less than six weeks before the U.S. midterm elections on November 3rd have focused the mind of politicians. One of the ideas that has been floated is to ban diesel exports from the U.S. for a period of time, like 90 days. Even a temporary ban would create severe disruptions in the global seaborne diesel trade. We’ll discuss some of the implications, as well as unintended consequences in this week’s Tanker Opinion. Please fill out the form to read the article.