EU in high-level contact with US over reported plans to ban diesel exports, spokesperson says

BRUSSELS, Sept 24 (Reuters) - High-level contacts between the European Union and the United States are ongoing amid a reported US plan to ban diesel exports that the EU believes would potentially have a negative impact on both sides, a European Commission spokesperson said on Thursday.

Politico reported that the US was preparing a 90-day ban on diesel exports amid a spike in prices ahead of the November midterm elections, though US Energy Secretary Chris Wright has disputed that.

"High-level contacts between the European Union and the US administration are ongoing. We expect close partners to consult each other before taking measures that affect shared markets," Olof Gill told reporters.

Analysts have said a US diesel export ban would do little to ease American prices but even a partial ban could lead to product shortages in Europe and elsewhere.

Diesel powers transportation, farm equipment and other machinery used to produce and move goods, with higher fuel prices stoking inflation by raising the cost of everything from groceries to industrial materials.

Diesel prices have surged due to low inventories and disruption caused by the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. Russia, the world's second-largest exporter after the US, banned diesel exports in July until the end of September. 

A US export ban would push US refineries to slash the amount of crude they process, in turn lowering output of gasoline and other products and pushing up the prices of those fuels, analysts and traders have said. 

The European Union is a net importer of diesel and would need to compete with buyers in Latin America, Africa and Asia for a smaller volume of available supplies.

(Reporting by Makini Brice and Richard Lough in Paris and Mateusz Rabiega in Gdansk; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)