Trafigura Group is helping Russian diesel fuel reach Latin America amid threats of a ban on the sale of such barrels in Europe, Bloomberg reports.

He chartered the Marlin Aventurine to deliver 262,000 barrels of diesel to Ecuador's state oil company Petroecuador, according to a commodity trader familiar with the situation.

Asked about the deal, a Trafigura spokesman said the company does not comment on individual shipments and is fully compliant with EU sanctions. Traders are reducing the volume of deliveries to Russia in accordance with the decisions on sanctions. However, the deal remains very lucrative as buyers can get deep discounts on Russian barrels of crude oil, diesel and heating oil. Other countries, such as India and China, have already become important destinations for Russian goods, which Europe avoids.

The US has banned imports of Russian crude oil and products, and the European Union ban is slowly coming into effect, with deadlines set to end this year. Trafigura was among the companies that said they were turning their backs on Russia. In April, the trader announced that he would stop signing crude oil deals with Russian state-backed producer PJSC Rosneft until they expire on May 15, when the EU is due to withdraw from new deals and significantly reduce purchases of petroleum products. Other commodities traders who have announced they have stopped new deals with Russia include Gunvor Group Ltd and Glencore PLC. Fuel markets have been in turmoil ever since as countries try to replace Russian goods that were banned before the ban was introduced.