Trump vs Europe as US presses for release of emergency diesel stocks 

European Union officials have held an emergency call after the Trump administration pressured Europe to release its emergency diesel stocks to help ease soaring diesel prices.

The US and Israel’s war on Iran, as well as Russia’s war on Ukraine, have triggered a spike in global diesel prices, which is damaging Trump politically at home.

US diesel prices have surged, hitting a record of $6.53 ⁠⁠⁠⁠per gallon last week. The average price of diesel in Europe has also hit an all-time high of 2.24 euros per litre ($9.56 per gallon), according to European Commission data.

The spike in US diesel prices has prompted the Trump administration and Republican lawmakers to consider restricting US diesel exports ahead of the upcoming November midterm elections.

Here’s what we know.

What pressure is the US putting on Europe?

Last week, Trump pressured Ukraine to stop attacking Russian diesel facilities amid the war, which Russia started when it invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Then, on Thursday this week, the US president told reporters that his administration “may” ask European countries to release diesel stocks, shortly after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urged Europe to “immediately” tap its reserves.

“Our European partners should accelerate delivery on their existing commitments and make additional supplies immediately available to address ongoing disruptions,” Bessent said in a social media post.

An EU government official told US media outlet Politico that the Trump administration did send a proposal to EU leaders on Thursday asking them to release 120 million barrels of diesel from their national strategic reserves over 180 days.

EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic told reporters after a G-20 trade meeting in the US that he had discussed tight diesel supplies and price spikes with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and expressed Europe’s desire for a coordinated approach to lowering prices.

Why is the US pressuring Europe for diesel?

The demand comes because of soaring diesel prices in the US amid its war on Iran, which has all but halted energy exports from the Gulf. Meanwhile, the Russia-Ukraine war has also disrupted energy supplies.

“We’re tight on diesel because we’ve lost diesel exports from Russia … some diesel exports from the Middle East, although we’re restoring those, and we’ve lost diesel exports from China,” a White House official told Al Jazeera on Thursday.

“So, that’s a lot of interruptions. But American refiners are running at record highs,” he added, saying that announcements from Europe about new supplies would also push prices down.

Eamon Drumm, a Paris-based fellow focusing on US-Europe energy at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, said the US administration likely believes that if European countries release stocks, it will ease pressure on global diesel prices and in turn bring prices down in the US ahead of the midterm elections.

He added that behind this is a frustration that France and Germany didn’t take more action earlier to release stocks, as well as an inclination to make Europe bear more of the global costs of the war with Iran.

“We’re witnessing the latest turn of the screw of the administration’s ‘energy dominance’ policy: it is leveraging Europe’s increased dependence on US diesel exports to try to extract expensive concessions,” he told Al Jazeera.

“The alternative it is threatening – a US diesel export ban – would hurt Europe but also have damaging economic and political consequences domestically, eroding trust in US suppliers and distorting domestic energy markets,” he added.

How do Europe’s diesel stocks compare with US diesel stocks?

EU countries, along with the United Kingdom, hold about 52 million metric tonnes of gas oil and diesel stocks, of which 37.50 million tonnes is reserved for emergencies, according to Eurostat’s June 2026 figures. EU rules require member states to maintain emergency oil stocks covering at least 90 days of net imports or 61 days of domestic consumption, whichever is greater.

Germany holds the largest amount of emergency stocks at 5.6 million tonnes, followed by France, which holds 8.2 million tonnes, according to Eurostat data.

The US diesel inventories, on the other hand, have hit a record low of 107.9 million barrels as of September 11, 2026.

The UK, which has similar requirements for diesel emergency stocks, relies on the US for about 30 percent of its diesel and has a reserve of about 42 days.

How are US-EU relations right now?

Relations between the US and EU have been tense ever since Trump imposed new trading tariffs on the 27-member bloc last year as part of the trade war he launched around the world shortly after beginning his second term as US president in January 2025.

Things took a turn for the worse last year when Trump demanded a deal to buy Greenland, refusing to rule out military force. European nations sent troops to the island in a show of defiance in January, causing Trump to threaten yet more tariffs for any countries standing in his way.

He retreated from that stance following talks with NATO leader Mark Rutte and, last month, the US announced a new agreement with Denmark and Greenland which will allow the US to build new bases and veto investment from nations it considers hostile.

Since all that, ties have soured even further as EU nations have refused to allow the US to use their airbases to launch attacks on Iran, and Washington is considering options for withdrawing troops from Europe.

Trump’s latest demand that EU nations release diesel stocks has added to these tensions.

How has Europe responded to the diesel demands?

On Thursday, five European countries – France, Germany, Italy, Ireland and the UK, held a meeting with the European Commission and agreed to respond with “one voice” to the US. Washington has previously asked these countries individually to release emergency diesel stocks and said these countries could face US diesel export bans if they did not release them.

On Friday, the EU’s energy task force comprising the European Commission and 27 EU nations met again to discuss how to respond to Washington’s demands.

Officials with knowledge of the meeting told the Reuters news agency that EU leaders discussed a proposal put forward by France, under which European countries would release 50 million barrels of diesel and International Energy Agency members would release 50 million barrels of crude oil.

Will the EU give in to US demands?

On Thursday, EU trade chief Sefcovic told reporters that he understands “that there is the intention and definitely strong preference from the European side for a coordinated approach and for finding the solutions”.

“We have every interest in working together on lowering the prices, be it on diesel or also other products from oil and gas supplies,” he added.

The White House official told Al Jazeera that it was in Europe’s “best interests” to work with Washington as they “pursue multiple pathways to boost the supply of refined products and lower costs for consumers”.

Frederic Schneider, a nonresident senior fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, told Al Jazeera that while Europe does indeed hold large mandatory product stocks, “the Trumpian fashion of issuing every request as an ultimatum makes it harder for European governments to agree”.

“Given that Ursula von der Leyen’s reaction to Trump’s tariff war on the EU last year was seen as a capitulation, and given the EU’s more assertive recent tone, I expect Europe to give some ground through an IEA-coordinated release that it can present as collective action, without being perceived as giving in to Washington,” he said.

“As a result, I would expect that release to be well short of 120 million barrels. European governments have a very material interest in keeping their buffer while there is no end to the Hormuz closure in sight,” he added.

Can the US get diesel stocks from elsewhere?

Schneider said the US is not short of diesel in absolute terms.

“It is a net exporter, shipping around 1.5 million barrels a day this year. Its problem is that diesel is priced on a global market, so a shortage anywhere raises US prices, too,” he said.

“European stocks would help the US by adding barrels to that global pool, not by arriving in American ports,” he added.

He noted that the usual alternative suppliers are already stretched with much of the Gulf’s export refining capacity sitting behind the Hormuz strait, Russian supply being constrained both by US-European sanctions and by Ukrainian strikes on its refineries.

Schneider said in such a situation, India’s export refiners and Asian hubs such as Singapore and South Korea can also redirect some [diesel] cargoes, but only at a higher price.

“There is effectively no large untapped source of diesel anywhere, which is why the stocks have become a point of conflict,” he added.

Why are diesel prices so worrying for Trump?

Soaring diesel prices have been a source of tension for the Trump administration and Republicans who fear this will cost them votes in the upcoming November midterm elections.

“Trump is scared by diesel prices above $6, which is a price jump of 70 percent compared to before he started the war. This is likely to get worse with US diesel inventories at their lowest seasonal level since records began in 1982. So if there is not enough diesel being produced because of the US-Israeli war on Iran, and diesel reserves have been used up, the only way to bring more diesel to the US market is by exporting less,” Schneider said.

He noted that diesel and gasoline are also important for economies and fulfil different roles.

“While gasoline fuels cars, diesel fuels anything from trucks, freight trains, ships, tractors, harvesters, construction machinery, mining equipment and backup generators. This means gasoline is used more by consumers while diesel is mostly used by producers, meaning a diesel price shock spreads into the price of almost everything else, most prominently food, building materials and anything delivered by truck,” he added.

Farmers are hit twice because diesel prices are rising at the same time as fertiliser prices, both of which have been pushed up by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

“A higher diesel price therefore acts like a tax on production and logistics, while higher gasoline prices act like a tax on consumers directly. Like higher gasoline prices, higher diesel prices risk stagflation by pushing up inflation while simultaneously squeezing margins in transport and agriculture, meaning central banks find [themselves] in a dilemma between cutting rates [helping producers] and raising rates [cutting inflation],” he said.

How does this affect global markets?

In their emergency meeting on Friday, EU countries agreed that further diesel stock releases should include a US commitment to avoid a unilateral diesel export ban, according to a report by Reuters.

But with the Trump administration still mulling a US diesel export ban, Schneider said hydrocarbon markets are exposed to more volatility because traders now have to price in a possible US export ban, which would in effect remove close to one-third of the world’s seaborne diesel supply.

“A ban would raise global prices, possibly even including in the US, because American refiners would cut runs once they lose export outlets,” he said.

He warned that there is also a bigger political risk.

“The emergency stock system has worked since the 1970s because countries release stocks together. If they instead enter in competition with each other, if the largest producer starts using export bans as leverage, others will hoard instead of sharing, meaning that international coordination and cooperation will suffer, and the victims will, as always, mostly be in the Global South,” he said.

“Poorer importers in Africa, South Asia and Latin America would lose out in the bidding,” he added.

“At a time when food and fertiliser prices are already rising globally, a falling-out between allies over fuel increases the risk of more misery in poorer countries, as well as global stagflation and economic downturn.”