Speaking to investors in New York on Monday, Patrick Pouyanné didn't sugarcoat it: "It's a bad idea." He argued that restricting diesel exports could "oblige US refineries to lower their throughput, and then it might impact the gasoline price in the US." Try to cool diesel, and you risk turning up the heat at the gas pump.
Pouyanné said the fallout would travel fast. With Europe buying more American diesel lately, a halt would tighten availability there, prompting authorities to draw on strategic reserves to keep prices in check. He added that while European refiners, including Total, could see fatter diesel margins, the broader effect would be more demand destruction and a tougher consumer backlash against oil companies.
Calls for limits are growing in US farm states, where lawmakers are urging Trump to restrict diesel exports during the peak harvest window. This is playing out as global fuel flows are already strained by disruptions in the key Strait of Hormuz and Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries. The US has effectively become the world's backstop supplier, with diesel exports climbing to a new weekly high that neared 2 million barrels a day in the past month.
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In France, Total has sought to ease pressure by imposing caps on both gasoline and diesel across its network of service stations. And on Monday, it deferred maintenance at a refinery in northwestern France to early next year to avoid cutting output and tightening the market in the coming months. If policies reroute fuel flows, you tend to feel it first in everyday prices and later in corporate results and sentiment. Watch how energy costs show up in the goods and services you actually buy.
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