G7 countries have agreed to coordinate the release of 100 million barrels of crude oil and refined fuel products from emergency reserves over four months, including a front-loaded substantial diesel release within the first 20 days, in an effort to ease fuel prices following pressure from the Trump administration.
White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said earlier Friday that the administration had been urging U.S. allies to put more refined petroleum products on the market.
Hassett joined FOX Business’ Stuart Varney on “Varney & Co.” to discuss the administration’s economic outlook and its talks with European allies over strategic fuel reserves.
In a post on Truth Social, President Donald Trump wrote that Europe “agreed to release a massive amount of their heavily stocked Diesel Oil” and that “the process will begin immediately.”
“We’ve been talking with our European allies all week, and they have been really accommodative,” Hassett said. “The president has been speaking to world leaders, talking about the fact that the difference between the U.S. strategic reserve is that ours is crude, whereas in Europe, their strategic reserve is refined product.”
That distinction matters because refined fuel reserves can be supplied directly to markets without first going through the refining process. The IEA notes that emergency stocks can include both crude oil and refined products, depending on how individual member countries structure their reserves.
G7 leaders convened virtually Friday to address energy security and volatile oil markets.
“We agreed on decisive, coordinated measures to stabilize immediate energy supplies, shield households and businesses from price shocks, and strengthen the long-term resilience of global energy systems,” the G7 leaders said in a joint statement.
“We will coordinate maintenance schedules across G7 refineries to prevent simultaneous capacity shutdowns and temporarily increase utilization rates where feasible,” the statement continued.
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The push comes as governments continue using emergency oil stockpiles to respond to global supply disruptions. Unlike the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which consists of crude oil, European emergency inventories can include refined products such as diesel. The International Energy Agency said Europe’s contribution to an earlier coordinated emergency release in March primarily consisted of refined oil products.
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Hassett said the administration believed a European release could provide relief for diesel prices while negotiations were underway, adding that it would “have a massive positive effect.”
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