Oil falls more than 2% on Friday as the EU discusses releasing reserves at the U.S. request

Reuters reports that Brent oil fell by $2.57 (2.51%) to $99.74 a barrel, while U.S. WTI oil fell 3.8% to $89.34. European gasoil futures (the diesel benchmark) fell by about 5%. Both contracts are heading for a weekly decline.

According to Reuters, in a call on Friday, EU governments discussed the French proposal for European countries to release 50 million barrels of oil and for members of the International Energy Agency to release 50 million barrels of crude oil. A source told Reuters that any agreement should include a U.S. commitment to avoid a unilateral American ban on oil exports.

As Reuters writes, the Trump administration had told Germany and France on Thursday to draw from emergency oil reserves or face a possible U.S. ban on oil exports. President Trump is considering the ban to lower fuel prices ahead of the November 3 midterm elections.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called on European partners to “accelerate delivery of existing commitments and make additional supplies available immediately.” French President Emmanuel Macron aims to hold a call with his G7 counterparts on crude oil and refined product markets, after discussing the issue with Trump.

The tension comes from the war with Iran and from China’s suspension of petroleum product exports for October. “The whole energy complex is trading lower,” Saxo Bank’s head of commodity strategy, Ole Hansen, told Reuters.