By Adedapo Adesanya

Crude oil prices contracted on Friday after European leaders agreed to President Donald ​Trump’s request to release diesel reserves to lower prices and reduce fuel imports from the United States.

Brent lost 6 cents ‌or 0.06 per cent to sell at $102.25 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) declined by $1.76 or 1.90 per cent to $91.11 a barrel.

The G7 and its partners have agreed to release as much as 100 million barrels of emergency diesel and crude stocks over the next four months, putting government inventories into a fuel market that has been running short of refinery output for months.

French President Emmanuel Macron said Friday that the release would be coordinated through the International Energy Agency (IEA), with an emphasis on diesel. European countries had discussed releasing 50 million barrels of diesel while members of the International Energy Agency (IEA) would supply another 50 million barrels of crude.

Combined, Germany and France hold about 35 per cent of the EU’s strategic diesel reserves. The EU is estimated to hold about 39 million tons of diesel, which is equivalent to more than two months’ consumption of the bloc.

President Trump welcomed the move after his administration pressed Europe to draw down its emergency stocks and floated restrictions on US diesel exports.

Previously, the American president had said he was mulling a ban ​on US diesel exports.

Prices had settled higher in the previous session after it was reported that Chinese refiners had suspended oil product exports ​for October to preserve domestic stocks.

Also ​supporting prices, the Wall Street Journal ⁠reported that the US was sending a third aircraft carrier and up to 10,000 more troops to the Middle East as Trump weighed resuming strikes on Iran after the midterm elections.

Barclays said in a note that despite better crude flows out of the Middle East, physical market fundamentals remained strong, with inventories still being drawn, and prompt cargoes commanding steep premiums over forward prices. It raised its fourth-quarter Brent forecast by $20 a ⁠barrel to $115 ​and lifted its 2026 forecast to $100 a barrel.

Elsewhere, Ukraine has struck oil facilities in ​Russia’s Samara and Volgograd regions over the past 24 hours, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on social media yesterday.