Oil and gas prices rose Monday after an “energy ceasefire” announced by President Donald Trump Sunday failed to gain any traction. U.S. diesel fuel futures rose slightly in late afternoon trading, while Brent crude oil jumped 2% to almost $108 per barrel and U.S. crude oil rose more than 2% to about $94. The price pressures continued to mount with just weeks to go before the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
Republicans face a steep climb to maintain their majorities in Congress, and voters across the country cite high gas prices as a key issue impacting their votes. The average nationwide price of diesel fuel Monday was $6.26 per gallon, nearly 80% higher than it had been at the start of the year, according to AAA data. The rising prices Monday came less than 24 hours after Trump declared that a ceasefire had been agreed to.
Both parties have agreed. Do not break it!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. Shortly after the president’s post, Russia renewed strikes against Ukrainian energy assets.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine learned about Trump’s ceasefire from press reports and was given no advance warning. He reiterated his position that Ukraine was open to an agreement not to target enemy energy infrastructure as long as Moscow agrees to it, too. In the meantime, Russia continued with “glide bomb strikes and strikes on our energy infrastructure,” Zelenskyy said Monday, noting that a power plant in Kharkiv had recently been attacked.
Putin had one answer to all of them — ‘nyet,’” Zelenskyy said, using the Russian word for “no.” The Kremlin on Monday neither confirmed nor denied having agreed to a deal. Trump’s Sunday announcement closely mirrored a similar post he made in September, when he announced that, “Ukraine has agreed not to hit Russian Energy targets. Russia has agreed to do, likewise!” There, too, Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s participation hinged on Russia’s agreement to comply, which never came.
Neither Ukrainian nor Russian strikes on the other’s energy assets slowed down in September. The dubious ceasefire Trump declared over the weekend followed a stunning announcement Friday in which the president said Russia would supply millions of barrels of diesel “to the American and Global Marketplace.” The announcement came after a phone call Friday between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin that reportedly lasted over an hour. Trump said the deal with Putin would “immediately supply over 300,000 Tons of Diesel Fuel to the American and Global Marketplace.” That translates into about 2.25 million barrels of diesel, or, less diesel than the United States uses in just one day.
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