US distillate exports surged to a record last week as global supplies tightened. Disruptions across the Gulf area and various surrounding maritime chokepoints, as well as Ukrainian one-way attack drone strikes that have paralyzed portions of Russia's energy infrastructure, have been a major boon for US refiners and export terminals along the Gulf of America.
To begin the week, Samantha Dart, co-head of global commodities research at Goldman Sachs, told Bloomberg TV, "The situation in Russia is really one thing that worries us a lot."
Dart warned, "I'd say on the oil side, as I mentioned before, diesel, I think is the oil product that is most vulnerable right now, not just because you have your seasonal demand strength ahead just in the winter, but on the supply side. And to your point in the beginning, it's not just that you run war, it's what's happening to the Russian refineries as well. And Russia is usually a pretty big exporter of diesel. And now they have restricted it."
Last month, Goldman analyst Daan Struyven warned that "Diesel is at the epicenter of the supply squeeze."
As global supplies dwindle, US energy exporters on the Gulf of America emerged as the winners, shipping a record 1.9 million barrels to overseas customers last week.
Shipments have exceeded 1.5 million barrels a day for five consecutive weeks, with recent cargoes heading to northwestern European ports - the epicenter of a global diesel shortage caused by Gulf area refinery disruptions through Hormuz and Ukrainian attacks on Russian refining capacity.
The trade-off from surging diesel exports is that US distillate stockpiles have fallen to their lowest seasonal level since 1996, raising the risk of a tighter domestic market heading into the fall demand surge.
Must Read:
Let’s not forget that Saudi Aramco CEO Amin H. Nasser warned that even if the Strait of Hormuz were reopened today, it could take up to 18 months to replenish global inventories.
All told, America is once again rescuing Europe from a deepening energy crunch - first LNG - this time diesel. You're welcome.
Tyler Durden Thu, 08/06/2026 - 14:05Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times,
New Mexico is suing the Department of Justice (DOJ) over unredacted Epstein files, accusing the federal agency of stonewalling the state’s own investigation into alleged crimes at deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s Zorro Ranch.
The legal action, filed Aug. 5, intensifies a politically charged fight over the DOJ’s Epstein files, which have been accumulating since investigations into Epstein began in the mid-2000s.
New Mexico reopened its investigation in February and is seeking access to files relating to who worked at and visited Epstein’s Zorro Ranch in Santa Fe County, New Mexico, and may have participated in or witnessed crimes.
The DOJ said it has handed over some of the files but is prevented by law from releasing others due to privacy protections.
“The Epstein Files Transparency Act does not require, and the protective orders in place in the Southern District of New York do not permit, disclosure of victim-identifying information carte blanche, and New Mexico has provided no lawful basis to justify such sweeping disclosures,” a DOJ spokesperson told The Epoch Times of its reasons for opposing the lawsuit.
The 2025 Epstein Files Transparency Act required the DOJ to release all unclassified records and investigative materials related to Epstein and his alleged sex trafficking network. The department was allowed to make redactions to safeguard the privacy of alleged victims or to shield ongoing investigations.
“Protecting victim privacy remains a top priority for the Department, and neither Touhy requests nor a desire to cooperate outweighs that privacy,“ the spokesperson said. ”DOJ remains available to assist New Mexico’s investigation consistent with the law and binding court orders.”
According to the complaint, the federal government has acknowledged that “Epstein and his criminal network subjected over 1,000 survivors to egregious and predatory conduct, including vulnerable young girls in New Mexico.”
New Mexico initially made informal requests to the DOJ for unredacted files. The federal agency had promised cooperation, including information sharing on alleged survivors and crimes, and told the state to formally file Touhy requests, used for accessing official information, testimony, or documents from a federal entity for use in a legal proceeding in which the U.S. government is not a party.
The complaint said the DOJ rejected the Touhy requests earlier this year. By failing to cooperate, DOJ officials are harming “victims and [undermining] the public interest” by holding up the state’s investigation of the conduct of Epstein and his co-conspirators at Zorro Ranch, it argued.
In 1993, Epstein bought Zorro Ranch and visited the state many times before he died in 2019.
According to state prosecutors, the Epstein files contain more than 13,000 references to the ranch, along with 5,000 references to locations in the state where victims were allegedly trafficked, assaulted, and groomed.
New Mexico alleges the DOJ has failed to properly handle its Touhy requests and violated the Administrative Procedure Act governing administrative law procedures, citing the agency’s refusal to honor its 2019 agreement in which federal prosecutors promised to cooperate with the state after it put its Epstein probe on hold.
New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez has “marched through every bureaucratic hoop USDOJ has demanded, only to have years of promised federal cooperation turned into bureaucratic defiance,” the complaint said.
In a call with reporters, Torrez said of the state’s investigation, “We haven’t charged someone because we need to see those files before we charge someone.” He said the probe faces considerable obstacles, noting the decades since Epstein’s alleged crimes, the change of ownership of the ranch in 2023, and jurisdictional issues.
New Mexico’s lawsuit was filed in federal district court in the nation’s capital.
Tyler Durden Thu, 08/06/2026 - 13:25