Some G7 nations are to release up to 100 million barrels of their emergency diesel and crude oil stockpiles — 50m barrels of diesel and 50m of crude — into the global market to ease prices, after Donald Trump threatened to cut off supplies of U.S. diesel.
According to The Guardian, French President, Emmanuel Macron, said that after crisis talks held via video on October 2, ministers from some of world’s largest economies had agreed to release stocks from their strategic oil reserves.
The G7 agreement is an attempt to placate the U.S. President, who has threatened to cut off Europe’s vital supply of U.S. diesel by imposing a total ban on diesel exports. In April, Russia imposed a ban on oil exports, straining a market already under duress because of Iran’s chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, through which some 20% of the world’s oil typically flows.
Read More: Could a U.S. Diesel Export Ban Throw Fuel on the Fire?
Macron, the current G7 chair, said the seven nations – France, the U.S., the U.K., Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan – wanted to “work in a coordinated manner to help bring down the prices of petroleum products, particularly diesel.”
The Guardian said the volume earmarked for release represented a third of the group’s total government stockpiles, and was more than double the release of 182 million barrels of oil made in 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
