US Threatens Diesel Export Ban Unless France And Germany Release Emergency Stocks
The Trump administration is pressing France and Germany to open their emergency diesel reserves, warning it could otherwise bar U.S. exports of the fuel.
Three people familiar with the discussions told Reuters about the warning. It comes as President Donald Trump weighs banning diesel exports to lower fuel prices ahead of the November midterm elections.
Diesel averaged $6.39 a gallon nationwide Thursday, up from $3.71 a year earlier, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA).
The U.S. has asked the European Union (EU) to release 120 million barrels of diesel within six months, a source in a European capital told Reuters.
Germany and France together hold about 35 percent of the bloc’s emergency reserves of diesel and similar fuels, Reuters reported, citing Eurostat data from May 2025. The volume the U.S. requested would equal more than 40 percent of the emergency diesel and similar fuel stocks held across the bloc, based on the same data.
“If Europe released diesel stocks, that would be helpful and would not throw U.S. fuel production into chaos or raise gasoline and jet fuel costs the way export restrictions would,” a spokesperson for the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, which represents U.S. refiners, said in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Releasing emergency stocks “can help provide needed supply and flexibility in a tight market,” American Petroleum Institute (API) spokesperson Bethany Williams said in a statement to the DCNF.
“Restricting U.S. diesel exports would make those challenges worse by reducing supply and potentially forcing U.S. refineries to cut production,” Williams added.
“It is in Europe’s best interest to work with the United States as we pursue multiple pathways to boost the supply of refined products,” an administration official said in a statement to the DCNF.
Heritage Foundation chief economist E.J. Antoni said in an email to the DCNF that a diesel export ban “would likely provide only temporary relief,” since storage holding the excess fuel “would quickly fill up” and refineries would then have to cut production.
“That’s one reason why the export ban is a recipe for higher gasoline and jet fuel prices,” Antoni said.
“An export ban does not produce additional diesel,” Johns Hopkins University applied economics professor Steve Hanke wrote in a statement to the DCNF, noting that U.S. refineries produce about 5.3 million barrels a day of distillate fuel, which includes diesel, against domestic demand of 3.6 million barrels a day.
Hanke called the 120 million barrels the administration wants Europe to release “noise, and borrowed noise,” since it amounts to roughly 670,000 barrels a day in a global distillate market of more than 28 million barrels a day.
The API, which represents the oil and natural gas industry, wrote in a Sept. 28 post on X that restricting exports “could disrupt refinery operations” and reduce fuel production.
Trump said in the Oval Office on Wednesday that a ban would “have a negative impact on gasoline” prices but could lower diesel costs.
The president’s administration has also considered asking refiners to cap exports voluntarily and letting more tax-exempt diesel be sold, according to Reuters.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright told reporters the same day that diesel exports from China had been lost and that some from the Middle East were being restored. He added that the administration expects Europe to announce additional diesel supplies shortly.
Chinese refiners have suspended fuel exports for October, and state-owned PetroChina canceled a handful of gasoline and jet fuel shipments planned for the month, Reuters reported Thursday, citing people briefed on the matter.
Officials from the European Commission, Germany, France, Italy, Ireland and Britain met by phone Thursday on whether to tap diesel stocks, an EU official told the news agency. French President Emmanuel Macron also plans to host a virtual meeting of G7 leaders on rising fuel costs and the supply of refined products, an official in his office told the outlet.
France’s energy ministry declined to comment, and Germany’s economy ministry did not immediately respond, the news agency reported.
In March, the International Energy Agency (IEA) committed its members to a release of roughly 400 million barrels of emergency crude and fuel stocks, with the U.S. pledging 172 million barrels, according to Reuters.
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