Europe agrees to release diesel stocks, Trump says

By Kate Abnett

BRUSSELS, Oct 2 (Reuters) - European countries have agreed to release diesel stocks, US President Donald Trump said on Friday, after the White House pressured governments to do so, in a bid to cool surging fuel prices linked to the Iran war.

"Europe has just agreed to release a massive amount of their heavily stocked Diesel Oil. The process will begin immediately," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.

Trump's statement followed talks on Friday among EU governments, who discussed a proposal by France for European countries to release 50 million barrels of diesel, and for International Energy Agency members to release 50 million barrels of crude oil, three sources familiar with the discussions told Reuters.

Under the proposal discussed by European governments on Friday morning, Europe would release part of the diesel volumes in a 20-day period, responding to Trump's demand for a rapid release of fuel stocks, two of the sources said.

French President Emmanuel Macron chaired a videoconference with G7 leaders on Friday afternoon to discuss the energy situation, the Elysee Palace said. It was not immediately clear if G7 countries had agreed to France's proposal on the volumes of fuel to be released.

US diesel futures extended their price losses on Friday after reports of the stock release discussions, and were down more than 4% to $4.4491 a gallon. Benchmark European diesel futures fell by over $100 a metric ton, LSEG data showed.

The discussions underscore growing pressure on Europe as Trump considers a potential ban on US diesel exports to help lower domestic fuel prices ahead of November 3 midterm elections.

In weighing its response, the EU needs to balance the need to ease soaring fuel costs against preserving emergency reserves to safeguard against uncertain supply from Gulf producers due to disruptions caused by the Iran war.

France's finance and energy ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

French President Macron spoke with Trump overnight, emphasising the need to work together to combat rising fuel prices and ensure the global availability of refined products, the Elysee Palace said on Friday. France currently holds the presidency of the G7.

Reuters reported on Thursday that the Trump administration had told Germany and France to draw down emergency diesel inventories or face a potential US diesel export ban, according to three people close to the discussions.

The US had demanded large European countries including France and Germany release 100 million barrels of diesel within a 20-day window, two of the sources told Reuters on Friday.

Global diesel supply has been hit by the US war with Iran and a Russian ban on exports after Ukraine damaged many of its refineries. Chinese refiners have also suspended October fuel exports to bolster domestic stocks, sources said.

The proposed 50-million-barrel release equates to approximately 17% of the EU's total emergency stocks of diesel and gasoil, Eurostat data current as of May 2025 showed.

It reflects around 3% of the bloc's annual consumption of the fuel, Eurostat data show.

Europe used to mainly rely on Russian and Middle Eastern diesel imports but has increasingly relied on imports from the United States in recent years.

"Having been caught dragging their feet on promised strategic stock releases earlier this year and now jarred by possible US export restrictions, European countries will likely release more diesel and possibly crude from their stocks," said Bob McNally, president of Rapidan Energy Group.

"European strategic stock releases are a necessary, if not sufficient, condition to prevent U.S. export restrictions, which would still remain on the table given acute political anxiety in the White House about high pump prices."

In the call on Friday, EU countries discussed making a condition for any agreement on diesel stock releases a US commitment to not impose a unilateral diesel export ban, one of the sources said.

The 32-member IEA agreed in March to a coordinated release of 400 million barrels of strategic oil reserves, in response to the Iran war, the largest such release in history.

IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said this week that members had released about two-thirds of those volumes.

(Reporting by Kate Abnett, additional reporting by Forrest Crellin, Ahmad Ghaddar, Robert Harvey and Jarrett Renshaw; editing by Kirsten Donovan, Jason Neely and Louise Heavens)