The four-month drawdown front-loads diesel in its first 20 days, with the IEA coordinating releases
The Group of Seven (G7), which comprises Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, agreed on October 2 to release 100m barrels of diesel and crude oil from emergency reserves over four months, beginning immediately.
France, which holds the rotating presidency, issued the joint statement after a videoconference of G7 leaders chaired by President Emmanuel Macron, AP reported.
According to the text published by CNN, the statement commits members and partners to a "frontloaded substantial diesel release within the first 20 days," coordinated through the International Energy Agency.
No breakdown of volumes by product or participating country was given, Reuters reported.
EU governments had discussed a French proposal for European countries to release 50m barrels of diesel and for IEA members to release 50m barrels of crude, three sources familiar with the discussions told the same outlet.
A 50m-barrel diesel release would equate to approximately 17 percent of the EU's emergency stocks of diesel and gasoil, Reuters reported citing Eurostat data.
G7 members also agreed to refrain from imposing export restrictions on energy products among themselves, Reuters reported, following a US pressure campaign that warned of a ban on American diesel exports.
"Europe has a lot of diesel, and they're going to be making a major world contribution, and so are we. And we're not going to be doing the export ban," US President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House, Reuters reported.
He said the plan was never really under consideration, despite having backed it several times over the preceding two weeks.
CNBC reported that Brent crude futures lost 6 cents to close at US$102.25 per barrel, and US West Texas Intermediate shed US$1.76 to settle at US$91.11.
US diesel futures fell 3.25 percent to US$4.49 a gallon and benchmark European diesel futures fell roughly US$83 per metric ton, down 5.75 percent, Reuters reported citing LSEG data.
The US national average for a gallon of diesel was US$6.37, AP reported citing AAA, after a record US$6.52 on September 22.
"This is a political statement rather than a specific and binding commitment with the large headline number intended to persuade [US] President Trump not to impose a diesel export ban," analysts at Energy Aspects said in a note cited by Reuters.
Pavel Molchanov, investment strategy analyst at Raymond James, told AP that the announcement had less impact because it did not say whether the 100m barrels add to the volume agreed in March 2026.
He asked whether it is "the final portion of the existing pledge."
Reuters reported that IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said members had released about two-thirds of the March agreement.
Releasing stocks will lower retail fuel prices for a time and leave Europe with less emergency supply, Jim Krane, energy research fellow at Rice University's Baker Institute, told AP.
Krane said G7 members will eventually have to refill their reserves and normally try to do so when prices are low. He called the unknown timing a risk.
Neil Atkinson, former head of the IEA's Oil Industry and Markets Division, told Al Jazeera the release "doesn't deal with the fundamental problem that the global supply remains lower than normal."
CNN reported that Russia has banned diesel exports after Ukrainian drone strikes on its refineries and extended the ban to the end of October.
China recently restarted restrictions on fuel exports, The New York Times reported.
