EU nations vow to release 42.6m barrels of oil after G7 pledge

Brussels: A dozen European countries pledged Thursday to jointly release 42.6 million barrels of oil by the end of January, in line with a G7 deal struck this month to ease global energy supply concerns.

"EU member states have reaffirmed their commitment to an accelerated release of 42.6 million barrels from strategic reserves over the next months, and around half of this will be diesel," the EU's energy commissioner Dan Jorgensen told reporters.

The 12 countries including France, Germany and Italy said in a statement they would release the oil from strategic reserves by the end of January 2027, including 20.5 million barrels of diesel.

Their announcement comes weeks after the G7 economies said they would release 100 million barrels of diesel and crude oil after US President Donald Trump threatened a diesel export ban.

The other European countries involved are Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden.

The International Energy Agency -- to which all 12 nations belong -- made a similar call in mid-October for its members to step up the release of oil stocks ahead of winter.

Trump ramped up the pressure on Europe to release reserves after the US-Israeli war with Iran sent energy prices skyrocketing, coming back to bite him at home with high fuel costs that have become a key issue ahead of congressional elections next week.

The EU said it was taking the impact of the crisis on households seriously but was not worried about supply.

"We do not expect the security of supply issue as such. But for the citizens that are struggling to pay the bills, that might not matter," Jorgensen said.

raz/ec/rl

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