Major economies have agreed to release 100 billion barrels of crude oil and diesel from emergency reserves in an effort to stabilise global energy markets.
The Group of Seven, G7 countries announced the coordinated release on Friday, 2 October, with supplies to be released over four months through the International Energy Agency.
After a video conference of G7 leaders chaired by French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday, the group said in a joint statement:
“Taking into account commitments that have already been fulfilled, we will implement our commitments with a coordinated release through the IEA of 100 million barrels.”
A substantial diesel release is planned within the first 20 days.
“We will convene in the context of the IEA in the coming days to discuss the possibility of additional diesel releases as necessary,” the statement said.
“We will coordinate maintenance schedules across G7 refineries to prevent simultaneous capacity shutdowns and temporarily increase utilization rates where feasible,” it added.
The agreement follows pressure from US President Donald Trump as rising fuel costs affect consumers and businesses across the globe.
Earlier this week, the Trump administration had threatened to impose a ban on US diesel exports and also pressured Europe to release its emergency diesel stocks to help ease soaring diesel
Participating countries also pledged to avoid restrictions on energy exports. However, the announcement did not specify how much each country would contribute.
Why are oil and diesel prices so high?
Global energy prices have been soaring due to the US and Israel’s war on Iran, which has disrupted energy exports from the Gulf. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s attacks on Russian energy installations have also disrupted global energy supplies.
The former head of the International Energy Agency’s Oil Industry and Markets Division, Neil Atkinson, told Al Jazeera that there are three key factors contributing to the decline in global diesel supply.
First, “there isn’t diesel coming out of the Middle East to Europe, and Europe took quite a lot of diesel from Saudi Arabia and from Kuwait”.
Second, “Russia has now ceased to export diesel at all” due to “the attacks by Ukraine on Russian refineries”.
“And China is no longer exporting diesel,” he added.
“We’re in a situation where demand remains relatively high and is likely to stay high because of the agricultural harvesting season.”
According to data from the Joint Organizations Data Initiative (JODI) and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the US is the world’s largest producer and exporter of diesel. It produces about 240.5 million tonnes and exports around 1.26 million barrels of diesel per day.
Russia is the world’s second-largest diesel exporter, supplying 783,400 barrels per day (bpd) to the global market. Saudi Arabia is the world’s second-largest producer of diesel at 58.4 million tonnes, but it consumes a large portion of its diesel domestically
Sources: Reuters, Al Jazeera, 2 October 2026.
