Key Points
- G7 leaders agreed on Friday, Oct. 2, to a coordinated release of 100 million barrels of diesel and crude oil through the International Energy Agency, starting immediately and running over four months.
- A “substantial” diesel release is front-loaded into the first 20 days; the statement did not say how the 100 million barrels splits between diesel and crude or which countries take part.
- The deal followed President Donald Trump’s threat to ban US diesel exports, a move that would have hit import-dependent Europe and the UK, and G7 members pledged not to restrict energy exports to each other.
- Brent crude briefly fell below $100 a barrel on the news before settling at $102.25 on Friday, down 6 cents; IEA members will meet in the coming days on possible further diesel releases.
The world’s biggest industrial democracies have agreed to put 100 million barrels of emergency fuel onto the market, with diesel first in line, after a pressure campaign from Washington and with UK pump prices for diesel topping £2 a litre for the first time.
In a joint statement after a virtual meeting on Friday, G7 leaders said the coordinated release through the International Energy Agency (IEA) would “begin immediately over 4 months, including a frontloaded substantial diesel release within the first 20 days by G7 members and partners.” The text was published by the UK government on GOV.UK.
The G7 oil diesel reserves release is the group’s answer to a fuel crunch driven by the Iran war, disruption in the Strait of Hormuz and reduced supplies from Russia. It also defused a transatlantic row over American diesel.
What the G7 agreed
Beyond the headline volume, leaders said they would:
- meet within the IEA “in the coming days” to discuss possible additional diesel releases;
- coordinate refinery maintenance so that plants across the G7 do not shut at the same time, and raise utilization where feasible;
- encourage countries with large refining capacity to produce more diesel in particular;
- refrain from export restrictions on energy and energy products between G7 countries;
- ask the IEA to deliver a follow-up report within 20 days.
Two details are missing. The statement does not break down how much of the 100 million barrels will be diesel and how much crude, and it does not say which countries will contribute. The BBC noted that it is not yet clear which partner countries will release stocks, or how quickly. Before the call, EU governments discussed a French proposal for European countries to release 50 million barrels of diesel and for IEA members to release 50 million barrels of crude, Reuters reported, citing three sources. The final statement did not confirm that split.
The wording also ties the release to existing promises. Leaders said they would “implement our commitments” with the 100 million barrels, “taking into account commitments that have already been fulfilled,” a reference to the IEA’s 400 million barrel release agreed in March, the largest in the agency’s history. IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said this week that members had released about two-thirds of those volumes, Reuters reported.
Trump’s diesel export threat
The trigger was a warning from the White House. Trump had said he would ban US diesel exports unless European countries put more of their own stocks on the market, a step that could have eased prices for American consumers ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections while pushing them up elsewhere. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent argued that US farmers, truckers and businesses “should not be left carrying the burden,” according to the BBC.
After the meeting, Trump declared victory. “Europe has just agreed to release a massive amount of their heavily stocked Diesel Oil. The process will begin immediately,” he wrote on Truth Social. Later, at the White House, he said an export ban had been “never really on the table” and added: “We’re not going to be doing the export ban, we’re going to be doing what we’re supposed to do,” the BBC reported.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who chaired the call, said the action would “bring down the prices of petroleum products, particularly diesel.”
How oil and diesel prices reacted
Markets moved, but not in a straight line. Brent crude briefly dropped below $100 a barrel on Friday after the release news, the BBC reported, then recovered to settle almost unchanged. Before the US and Israel went to war with Iran, Brent traded at around $73.
Matt Smith, director of commodities research at Kpler, told the BBC that oil sold off strongly on the stock release news but reversed course on rumors that Saudi Arabia was planning an offensive into Yemen.
Diesel reacted more sharply. US diesel futures posted their lowest settlement since Aug. 31, and European diesel futures fell by roughly $83 a metric ton, or 5.75%, during Friday trading, Reuters reported, citing LSEG data.
Key numbers at Friday’s close
| Benchmark | Friday, Oct. 2 settlement | Change on the day | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brent crude (December) | $102.25 a barrel | Down 6 cents (0.06%) | Reuters |
| US WTI crude (November) | $91.11 a barrel | Down $1.76 (1.90%) | Reuters |
| Nymex ULSD diesel (November) | $4.5011 a gallon | Down 14.09 cents (3.04%) | Dow Jones Market Data |
Markets are closed for the weekend, so these Friday settlements are the latest prices until trading resumes on Monday. Even after two days of losses, US diesel futures remain more than double their level at the start of the year, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
Why diesel matters so much
Diesel powers trucks, farm machinery and much of global freight, so higher prices feed quickly into food and goods. It is also hard to cut demand for. In the UK, where more than half of diesel is imported and 31% of those imports come from the US, pump prices topped £2 a litre for the first time on Friday, the BBC said.
The US is a key supplier. American refineries produce roughly 4 million to 5 million barrels of diesel a day and export 1.2 million to 1.5 million barrels a day, according to US Energy Information Administration figures cited by the BBC. That is why a US export ban alarmed Europe.
Is it enough?
Not everyone is convinced. Analysts at Energy Aspects called the deal “a political statement rather than a specific and binding commitment,” with a large headline number “intended to persuade President Trump not to impose a diesel export ban,” according to Reuters.
The next tests come quickly: the IEA meeting on more diesel, the 20-day follow-up report, and whether diesel prices hold lower once trading resumes on Monday. For background on how the war has driven energy costs, see our oil price forecast for 2026 and our coverage of Iran’s Hormuz proposal.
