Diesel has reached 2 euros a litre at many petrol stations in Cyprus. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said he had called for a halt to US diesel exports, a move that sent European diesel prices to a record premium over crude oil.
Konstantinos Karagiorgis, director of the Consumer Protection Service, was asked about the prices of fuel cargoes due to arrive in the coming weeks. “We cannot predict what will happen in the future,” he said. He added that, given continuous rises in refinery prices, the current picture was not very encouraging.
Opposition party DISY called for consumer support measures in a statement on Wednesday. It said high prices were becoming entrenched and the cost of living kept rising, putting suffocating pressure on households and businesses. “The longer the government delays acting, the harder it will be to curb high prices. Constant monitoring and strict supervision of the market are needed today more than ever,” the party said.
Across the EU
Eurostat data published on Monday showed average fuel prices in the EU rose by 23.8 per cent between August 2025 and August 2026. Prices rose by 19.1 per cent in Cyprus and 16 per cent in Greece. They have risen further in several countries in September, especially for diesel.
The biggest increases were in Bulgaria (34.5 per cent), Lithuania (28.8 per cent), Finland (27.6 per cent), Germany (27.5 per cent) and France (27.4 per cent). The smallest were in Hungary (1.3 per cent), Sweden (6.1 per cent), Ireland (11.7 per cent) and Estonia (14 per cent).
Trump’s call
“I’ve said let’s not send out the diesel. We make a lot of diesel,” Trump told reporters early on Wednesday, Cyprus time. He said he had called for it within his administration. According to Reuters, his remarks sent the premium European low-sulphur diesel commands over Brent crude to a record of about 95 dollars a barrel.
Governments across Europe are already announcing tax cuts to shield consumers from steep rises at the pump. Just 15 days ago, the European Commission said the EU had no diesel supply problem, because higher European production and alternative imports were meeting demand.
By late Wednesday, no ban on exports from US refineries had been announced, nor any cut to them. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said only that the administration was examining whether a full or partial ban was feasible.
The administration is under heavy pressure from Republican and Democratic candidates ahead of the November midterm elections. Petrol and diesel prices have soared in most states, hitting transport and production, especially farming. US diesel averaged 6.53 dollars a gallon on Tuesday, thought to be the highest average on record and more than 75 per cent up on a year earlier. Petrol averaged 4.50 dollars a gallon.
The US Department of Agriculture urged the White House last week to act on diesel prices. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said she had discussed the issue with Trump and described high prices as a real concern, Politico reported.
Energy secretary objects
Before Trump spoke, Energy Secretary Chris Wright warned that an export ban would bring only a temporary diesel surplus and lower pump prices at home. It would then push refiners to slow production, cutting fuel output and driving prices back up. “If you start putting barriers on flows, pretty quickly you will reduce the production,” he said, adding that the US needed more fuel supply, not less.
Wright restated his disagreement on Wednesday, hours after the president’s comments. Without exports, he said, “you run out of places to store it”. The US would then have to cut refining, pushing up petrol and jet fuel prices.
Markets
Total US oil exports have risen by more than 20 per cent since March, when the war against Iran began, compared with the 2025 average, reaching 9 million barrels a day, Reuters reported. It said US diesel stocks had fallen to their lowest for this time of year in more than four decades, about 13 per cent below 2025 levels.
Brent crude fell early on Wednesday to 97.36 dollars, its lowest since September 8. It then swung up and down before rising to just over 100 dollars.
Macron’s letter
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said last week that imported fossil fuels had cost Europe an extra 90 billion euros since the start of the war in Iran, without adding any extra energy. The cost is passing through the economy, fuelling inflation and shrinking households’ real incomes. In Cyprus, inflation has risen to just over 5 per cent.
By Wednesday the Commission had not formally replied to a letter from French President Emmanuel Macron to von der Leyen about high fuel prices and dwindling stocks ahead of winter. The letter was sent before Trump’s remarks.
In it, Macron asked Brussels to take urgent action to secure Europe’s supply of diesel and jet fuel. The prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz and fresh attacks on Middle East energy infrastructure threaten to cut global oil supplies further.
Macron said Europe’s oil market had so far held up thanks to higher refinery output, weaker demand in Asia and drawing on existing stocks. He warned that this cushion was disappearing fast, with 14 per cent of petrol stations in France facing shortages or worried they soon would.
According to Euronews, he wrote that Europe was particularly dependent on Middle East imports for jet fuel, which accounts for 36 per cent of its imports from the region, and for diesel, at 18 per cent. He urged the Commission to temporarily relax some EU fuel quality standards so refineries could produce more jet fuel and diesel.
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