G7 will release 100 million barrels, diesel first, after Trump drops an export ban

The Group of Seven said on Friday it will put 100 million barrels of oil and diesel onto the market over four months, coordinated by the International Energy Agency, after President Donald Trump pressed Europe to draw stocks or face a US ban on diesel exports. He later said the ban was never really on the table.

France holds the G7 presidency. President Emmanuel Macron chaired a videoconference and said the bloc had agreed to release reserves of up to 100 million barrels within four months. The joint statement is more precise. It commits members and partners to a coordinated IEA release of 100 million barrels beginning immediately, including a front-loaded substantial diesel release within the first 20 days, with talk of further diesel releases if needed.

The split under discussion in European capitals was 50 million barrels of diesel from Europe and 50 million barrels of crude from wider IEA members, according to diplomats cited by the Financial Times. The public text does not assign country quotas. It is not yet clear which partners will release stocks, or how fast refined diesel, as opposed to crude, will actually move.

That distinction matters. A barrel of crude does not become a litre of diesel until a refinery runs it. G7 governments also urged countries with spare refining capacity to increase diesel output. The release can put physical product into a short market. It does not add a refinery.

Prices, and what the March pledge already covered

US diesel hit a record national average of $6.52 a gallon on 22 September, AAA figures cited by the Associated Press show, and stood at $6.37 on Friday. In Britain, diesel topped £2 a litre for the first time on Friday. The BBC reported that Britain imports more than half of its diesel, and that 31 percent of those imports come from the United States. A US export ban would have landed first on that flow.

Brent crude briefly slipped under $100 a barrel after the announcement, then was back around $102 by Friday evening. Before the United States and Israel opened the war on Iran, Brent was near $73. The Strait of Hormuz, which usually carries about a fifth of the world's liquefied natural gas as well as a large share of crude, has been constrained for months. Renewed strikes between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis in Yemen added a second bid to prices after the G7 statement.

OilPrice noted a further point that the headline number hides. The IEA already coordinated a 400 million barrel emergency release in March, after the Iran war began, and about two-thirds of those barrels have already been released. The G7 text refers to commitments already fulfilled and frames the 100 million barrels as the way those March pledges will be completed, not as a clean extra tranche on top of the 400 million. Readers who treat Friday's figure as wholly new stocks will overstate the addition.

The ban that was, then was not

Trump first backed a diesel export ban early last week and was still considering it on Thursday. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said US farmers, truckers and businesses should not be left carrying the burden. Overnight into Friday, Trump spoke with Macron. A White House official, speaking without a name, told the Associated Press that Trump then called into the G7 meeting to negotiate the European diesel release. The French embassy in Washington confirmed the overnight call.

On Truth Social, Trump wrote that Europe had agreed to release a massive amount of heavily stocked diesel oil and that the process would begin immediately. At the White House he called the European decision a great thing, said Europe has a lot of diesel and would make a major contribution, and said the United States would too. He added that Washington would not impose the export ban. Later he said the ban was never really on the table.

The joint statement reaffirms that G7 members will not place export restrictions on energy and energy products among themselves, and calls on all producers to avoid bans that could tighten the market further. UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband represented Britain and said the measures would stabilise supplies and shield households and businesses from price shocks. Macron said Trump in particular had been very clear on the point about export bans.

The political calendar sits under the barrels. US midterm elections in November will decide control of Congress. Diesel is the fuel of trucks and farm equipment, so the pump price feeds grocery costs within weeks. European governments had pushed back against the export-ban threat before agreeing the release. The stocks buy time while damaged and idled refineries stay out of service. They do not reopen Hormuz.