WASHINGTON / BRUSSELS / PARIS — The Trump administration has told France and Germany to draw down emergency diesel inventories to ease global fuel prices or risk a U.S. diesel export ban, three people close to the talks told Reuters on Thursday.
The warning escalates pressure on Europe as President Trump weighs an export ban aimed at cooling U.S. diesel prices before November’s midterms. U.S. officials have been frustrated that France and Germany, in their view, did not fully follow through on earlier commitments to release oil and petroleum stocks. A European-based source told Reuters Washington asked the EU to free about 120 million barrels of diesel over six months.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright told reporters Wednesday he expects European announcements soon about new diesel supplies. “We’ve lost some diesel exports from the Middle East, although we’re restoring those, and we’ve lost diesel exports from China,” Wright said, citing supply interruptions tied to the Iran conflict and other shocks. Europe has grown more dependent on U.S. fuel after banning Russian imports over the Ukraine war and as Middle East flows were disrupted.
Trump said an export ban remains “on the table,” telling an Oval Office audience he speaks often with Wright and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum about the idea. Advisers warn a ban could lower diesel but raise gasoline and other product prices. Wright has pitched European reserve releases as an alternative to a blanket U.S. export curb, Politico Europe reported.
France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Ireland and the European Commission held emergency talks Thursday on an “assertive,” coordinated response to U.S. pressure, Politico Europe said. EU strategic diesel stocks are large — Eurostat figures cited in prior coverage put holdings near 315 million barrels as of midyear — but governments are wary of draining emergency buffers for U.S. political timelines.
For American truckers and farmers, the diplomacy is really about pump prices. For Europe, it is about sovereignty over strategic stocks. The next few days of announcements — or silence — will show whether reserve releases can head off a U.S. export ban that would ripple through Atlantic fuel markets.
Diesel matters acutely for freight, agriculture and construction — sectors that vote and that feel price spikes quickly. U.S. refiners and some Cabinet officials oppose an export ban, arguing domestic product markets are linked and that choking exports could backfire into higher gasoline. Wright’s European reserve plan is designed to add barrels without that domestic dislocation, but EU capitals bristle at being asked to drain strategic stocks to solve American electoral politics.
Thursday’s European coordination meeting signals governments prefer a joint answer to bilateral arm-twisting. Whether that answer is a limited coordinated release, a refusal, or a counter-demand on U.S. policy remains unclear. Truck stops from Arizona to Bavaria will feel the result either way.