Diesel is at a record $6.53 a gallon in the United States, and Washington wants Europe to help bring it down. The Trump administration has pressed European governments to release emergency diesel stocks, and EU officials held an emergency call in response. The pressure comes from a global spike in diesel prices set off by the US and Israeli war on Iran and Russia’s war on Ukraine. In Europe the average price has also hit a record, 2.24 euros per litre, according to European Commission data.
What Washington is asking
The US push came in steps. Trump first leaned on Ukraine to stop attacking Russian diesel facilities. On Thursday he told reporters his administration “may” ask Europe to release stocks, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had just urged Europe to tap its reserves “immediately”. An EU government official told Politico that a proposal did reach EU leaders that day, asking for 120 million barrels from national strategic reserves over 180 days. Republican lawmakers and the administration are also weighing limits on US diesel exports ahead of the November midterms.
A White House official told Al Jazeera the US is tight on diesel because it has lost exports from Russia, China and, for now, part of the Middle East. American refiners are running at record highs, he added, and any European announcement of new supply would also push prices down.
Europe’s response
France, Germany, Italy, Ireland and the UK met the Commission and agreed to answer Washington with “one voice”. The next day the EU’s energy task force met again. Officials told Reuters that leaders discussed a French proposal: European countries would release 50 million barrels of diesel, and International Energy Agency members 50 million barrels of crude. EU states also agreed that any release should come with a US pledge not to impose a unilateral export ban. EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic, after a G-20 trade meeting, said Europe had a strong preference for a coordinated approach.
Frederic Schneider, of the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, expects Europe to give some ground through an IEA-coordinated release, but “well short of 120 million barrels”. Governments, he said, have a material interest in keeping their buffer while the Hormuz closure shows no end.
The stocks
EU countries and the UK together hold about 52 million metric tonnes of gas oil and diesel, nearly 38 million of it emergency reserves held by EU states, per Eurostat’s June 2026 figures. France holds 8.2 million tonnes and Germany 5.6 million. US diesel inventories fell to a record low of 107.9 million barrels as of September 11. The UK gets about 30 percent of its diesel from the US and holds around 42 days of reserve.
Why it hurts
Schneider said US diesel prices above $6 are about 70 percent higher than before the war. Diesel moves trucks, trains, ships and tractors, so a price shock spreads into food and building materials, and farmers are hit twice because fertiliser has also risen. A US export ban, he warned, would remove close to a third of the world’s seaborne diesel and could push prices up even in America. Eamon Drumm of the German Marshall Fund called the demand the latest turn of the screw on “energy dominance” policy, using Europe’s reliance on US diesel to extract concessions.
Ties were already strained by the 2025 tariffs, the Greenland dispute, and EU refusal to let US forces use their airbases for strikes on Iran.
