Record US Diesel Prices Push Washington Toward an Export Ban

According to the Financial Times, cited by Donya-e-Eqtesad, a jump in US diesel prices to a record 6.51 dollars a gallon, ahead of the US congressional midterm elections, has pushed Republican lawmakers, including Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley and fellow Iowa representatives Ashley Hinson and Zach Nunn, to press the Trump administration for an immediate ban on diesel exports. Since the US Iran conflict began in February, US diesel prices have jumped more than 70 percent, the report said. Mike Sommers, president of the American Petroleum Institute, warned that a ban, which would affect roughly 1.5 million barrels of the roughly 8 million barrel a day global seaborne diesel trade, would push global prices higher. The consultancy Rapidan Energy put the odds of the Trump administration announcing an export ban at about 35 percent.