Several tankers carrying Russian diesel toward the United States have diverted or altered their discharge plans after facing difficulty finding buyers willing to accept the cargoes. The Agioi Fanendes, loaded with 300,000 barrels, slowed near the U.S. East Coast on Monday and began moving in a zigzag pattern. Ship-tracking service Kpler lists its new destination as South America, although the tanker initially listed New York.

Three other diesel tankers turned away last week. Two began sailing to Brazil, while a third pivoted from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and arrived in Egypt, according to Kpler. Each had initially listed its destination as “Atlantic Coast”—shorthand for the United States—when leaving the Russian port of Primorsk last month.

The route changes have left the administration’s import plan without a completed delivery. U.S. government data show that no Russian diesel has been imported into the country since April 2022. The Agioi Fanendes was the latest of several vessels carrying Russian fuel to shift course or revise its discharge plans midjourney.

President Trump announced the arrangement on Oct. 9 after a “highly successful discussion” with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said Moscow had agreed to “immediately” supply diesel to the U.S. and global markets.

A Trump administration official later said, “Consistent with the deal agreed to between President Trump and President Putin, Russian diesel is on the water and heading to the market, which will ease prices for Americans.”

The same day Trump unveiled the deal, the Treasury Department waived sanctions on Russian diesel imports through April. The legality of the move was disputed. Lawmakers including senior Democrats and Republicans said the carve-out violated a 2022 law banning energy imports from Russia; the Trump administration said the waiver complied with all applicable laws.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) wrote to the Greek owner of the Agioi Fanendes that the company would be “engaged in an illegal transaction” if it delivered the cargo to U.S. shores. Earlier this month, New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill warned state port and terminal operators, intermediaries and buyers: “do not help bring illegal Russian diesel into New Jersey.”

Companies also faced international sanctions exposure. Fuel imports from Russia remain banned by the U.K., European Union and Switzerland, raising the risk that U.S. firms handling the diesel could violate foreign restrictions. Industry executives and lobbyists said the potential legal and reputational consequences were making U.S. oil companies reluctant to handle the cargoes.

Michelle Wiese Bockmann, a senior analyst at maritime intelligence firm Windward, said, “There are political, compliance and enforcement challenges.”

U.S. refiners are not short of diesel: domestic refiners make more than enough for U.S. consumption and export more than 1.5 million barrels a day. Even so, the U.S. average price reached $6.16 a gallon as of Tuesday, up from $3.75 before the war, as global supplies tightened following the Middle East conflict. Trump had presented the Russian imports as a way to lower high fuel prices amid rising consumer costs in the run-up to the midterm elections.

After Democrats won the midterm elections last week, oil lobbyists said companies feared that being involved in the transactions would get them caught up in investigations by the next Congress. George Voloshin, data and insights lead at ACAMS, an organization of antifinancial-crime professionals, said, “The trade-off is not very favorable for any party involved.” He added, “They could get sued or dragged through the mud in the press as complicit in the war in Ukraine. And who needs that?”

Moscow had halted diesel exports this summer after a campaign of Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian refineries and has partially restored them. Kyiv’s drone strikes have caused fuel shortages across Russia and prompted Moscow’s temporary ban on diesel exports in July. A month after Trump’s post, Russia was again selling diesel to the Middle East, North Africa and South America.

Until spring, Russia was the world’s second-largest diesel exporter after the United States. Under the agreement, Russia’s export plan called for this year’s global shipments to remain below one-fifth of its pre-drone-strike level, based on figures released by Trump. Those volumes were small compared with the global supply shortfall, analysts said.

“Combined diesel exports from the Mideast and Russia are still very low, with little movement there,” said Martijn Rats, chief commodities strategist at Morgan Stanley.

Russian officials continued to defend the agreement. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called it “an important contribution to energy security” in an article published Tuesday in a Russian newspaper. Last week, a Kremlin envoy said tankers headed to the United States remained on course, disputing reports that some had diverted. The Kremlin did not respond to a request for comment.

The waiver remained formally open through April, but the tanker changes had not produced a Russian diesel import into the United States. The administration continued to expect the cargoes to ease U.S. prices, while industry officials and lobbyists said legal and reputational risks were deterring buyers.