Twelve European nations announced Thursday they would jointly release 42.6 million barrels of strategic petroleum reserves as fuel demand surges heading into winter. [AP]
Twelve European nations announced Thursday they would jointly release 42.6 million barrels of strategic petroleum reserves as fuel demand surges heading into winter. [AP]

Twelve European nations will jointly release 42.6 million barrels of strategic petroleum reserves by late January.

Germany, France, Italy and nine other countries issued a joint statement Thursday (local time) announcing plans to release strategic petroleum reserves — including 20.5 million barrels of diesel — by the end of January.

The move follows a G7 agreement earlier this month to release 100 million barrels of diesel and crude oil over the next four months. At the time, US President Donald Trump pressured Europe by threatening to ban American diesel exports if European nations did not tap their strategic reserves, prompting the European countries to agree to the 100 million-barrel release.

Dan Jørgensen, the EU's energy commissioner, told reporters after an EU Energy Council meeting in Luxembourg on Thursday that member states had "reaffirmed their commitment to an early release of 42.6 million barrels of strategic petroleum reserves over the coming months," adding that half of the total would be diesel.

The release also includes participation from European nations outside the G7, among them Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania and Luxembourg.

The decision comes ahead of winter, when energy consumption surges. Jørgensen said about 50 million Europeans currently live in homes that cannot be adequately heated. The energy supply crunch has worsened this year following the outbreak of the Iran war on top of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. The EU has warned that Europe could face a more severe energy crisis this year than it did in 2022, when the Russia-Ukraine war first erupted.

Jørgensen said that, separate from the financial burden rising energy prices place on households, there are no concerns about the stability of energy supply itself.


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