Wright says US will ask Europe to release strategic diesel reserves
The request follows weeks of internal debate over a possible 90-day US diesel export ban that was floated on September 23
Published
US Energy Secretary Chris Wright says the administration will ask European governments to release diesel from their strategic reserves, according to Fox News.
The request follows weeks of internal deliberation in Washington. The White House had been weighing a release from Europe's reserves as a way to avoid imposing a US export ban, an option floated on September 23 that would have run for 90 days. A separate idea, delegating the decision to individual states, was discussed on September 25. Wright himself had floated voluntary restrictions on refiners on September 24 as an alternative to an outright ban. Politico had already reported that Washington was pressing European governments on a reserve release.
Europe sources roughly half of its diesel from the US, which leaves it exposed to any tightening on the American side. Asking Europe to draw down reserves it will likely need for a difficult winter does not resolve that tightness, it shifts it across the Atlantic. The move keeps pressure off US refiners' export economics while leaving European diesel cracks and the adequacy of Europe's own reserves as the more exposed side of the trade heading into winter.