Then-President Donald Trump stated on October 12, 2018, that European nations had agreed to release a “massive amount” of diesel fuel from their reserves to address rising fuel prices. The announcement, made to reporters at the White House, came less than a month before the U.S. midterm elections.
“We have a lot of diesel fuel, and Europe is going to be putting out a massive amount of diesel fuel, and that’s going to bring it down,” President Trump said at the time.
The statement followed a period of increasing energy costs. According to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the national average price for a gallon of diesel fuel in the U.S. stood at approximately $3.38 in the second week of October 2018, its highest point in nearly four years.
Following the president’s remarks, officials from European governments and the International Energy Agency (IEA) indicated they were not aware of a formal agreement for a coordinated release of emergency stocks. Reuters reported that sources within the European Commission and the governments of several major European economies expressed surprise at the announcement.
The IEA, a Paris-based organization that helps coordinate energy policies among its 31 member countries, is responsible for activating collective action to release stocks from national strategic reserves. The agency’s mandate typically reserves such releases for instances of severe global oil supply disruptions, such as those caused by natural disasters or major geopolitical conflicts. The IEA confirmed at the time that it was not involved in any plan for a coordinated release.
Strategic reserves are stockpiles of crude oil and petroleum products maintained by the governments of IEA member countries to be used during emergencies. Any decision to release these stocks is generally made through a formal, collective process managed by the IEA to ensure market stability.
No coordinated emergency release of European diesel stocks occurred following the president’s 2018 statement. U.S. fuel prices fluctuated in the subsequent weeks due to various global market factors, including crude oil production levels and international trade dynamics.
