G7 Members Agree to Release Up to 100M Barrels of Oil Reserves to Curb Fuel Prices

The Group of Seven (G7) agreed on Friday, Oct. 2 to release up to 100 million barrels of crude oil and diesel reserves over the next four months in an effort to curb soaring fuel prices. According to a joint statement issued after Friday’s emergency meeting, G7 leaders agreed that the release would “begin immediately,” starting with diesel stocks, Politico reported.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. “We agreed that there would be no export restrictions or export bans between G7 members,” French President Emmanuel Macron said, adding that “there will be coordination, cooperation and no export ban on any category of product whatsoever.” France denies being pressured into the decision Macron denied that Europe had been pressured into the concession by the threat of a US diesel export ban. According to Politico, he told reporters that “the tone of our discussion was not one of threats; it was constructive,” adding that Trump had been “very clear” there would be no export ban. Macron also said that the agreement was particularly important because speculation earlier in the day had driven the prices up. While the leaders’ statement did not specify which countries would supply the oil, Trump claimed in a post on Truth Social that European countries had agreed to make a major contribution. “Europe has just agreed to release a massive amount of their heavily stocked Diesel Oil,” he wrote. “The process will begin immediately.” Other Topics of Interest Ukraine Could Become Europe’s Storage Hub for US Gas Ukraine’s vast underground storage network could give American gas a larger foothold in European markets, but Russian attacks remain a hurdle. The agreement followed several rounds of emergency talks among European governments on how to respond to US pressure, with France proposing a release of 100 million barrels of European oil and diesel earlier on Friday. Earlier this week, Politico separately reported that Washington had approached EU governments and the UK directly, urging them to release new stocks of diesel and crude oil so that a sharp rise in price could be cushioned ahead of the November midterm elections. Questions over the impact The real effect of the release on supply remains uncertain. In March, G7 members joined a 400-million-barrel release coordinated by the International Energy Agency (IEA), yet a trader and an EU diplomat told Politico that much of that oil has never reached the market, as it was priced out by an influx of cheaper US crude. The barrels nonetheless remained officially available. Two other diplomats told Politico that Friday’s pledge may amount to little more than a restatement of the March commitment. Trump blames Ukraine – again Trump again pinned the blame for soaring prices on Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian oil refineries, rather than the war in the Middle East. Speaking during an address in the Oval Office on Wednesday, Sept. 30, he said that “diesel is really hurt much more, not by the Middle East, but by what’s going on in Russia, because those diesel refineries are being knocked out at a pretty alarming rate.” “The World’s Diesel price rise is mostly caused by the Russia/Ukraine War, not Iran,” Trump previously wrote in a post on Sept. 14, while also claiming that the countries had agreed to an energy ceasefire. His remarks followed a record month of Ukrainian strikes on Russia’s energy sector. In August, Ukrainian drones hit approximately 21 Russian oil refineries, reaching a wartime high According to Bloomberg’s estimates on Aug. 28, the attacks had cut Russia’s production of gasoline, diesel, aviation fuel and other petroleum products by more than 30%. Energy analysts point to other factors as the main drivers of the global price surge. According to Reuters, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright offered a broader explanation, saying diesel supplies had also tightened due to lost exports from the Middle East and China. The US-Israeli war with Iran has brought tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz close to a halt, while the Houthi capture of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait has further constrained shipping. However, Macron said on Friday that oil exports from the region had picked up in recent days. “Between Hormuz and the Yanbu route into the Red Sea, we now have a little more than three-quarters of the volumes that existed before the war being exported today,” he said, adding that “there is determined action by everyone, and we support the restoration of this freedom of navigation.” Meanwhile, US diesel prices reached a record $6.53 per gallon in late September, according to AAA data cited by Reuters. An earlier Financial Times report citing Ukraine’s Kyiv School of Economics (KSE) Institute found that the US war in Iran had a larger impact on global diesel prices than the war in Ukraine. Kyiv Post is Ukraine’s first and oldest English news organization, reporting since 1995. Its international reach – 97% of readers are outside of Ukraine – make it truly Ukraine’s global voice.