Élysée announces extra diesel from the Gulf: how to find a station with fuel and how to read the government shortage map

What was announced

On Tuesday 20 October, the Élysée Palace said France had secured an additional 200,000 tonnes of diesel per month from Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. The announcement came during Emmanuel Macron's trip to the Gulf.

According to the Élysée, these volumes come on top of 95,000 tonnes a month already lined up from Saudi Arabia for October and November. Together that makes 295,000 tonnes — more than 10% of France's diesel consumption, by the presidency's estimate. TotalEnergies will handle the shipping. The Élysée expects an effect on pump prices but did not put a number on it.

Keep the scale in mind: this is a supply commitment, not fuel already sitting in station tanks. No date for the first deliveries was given.

Where stations stand now

The government publishes a daily availability snapshot on the "Disponibilités carburants" page of prix-carburants.gouv.fr. At 9:00 on 20 October, 90% of stations were operating without difficulty. The share of stations with a shortage has been falling: 14% on the evening of 18 October, 12% on the evening of the 19th, 10% on the morning of the 20th.

The regional picture is uneven: Grand Est is worst hit (16% of stations), Île-de-France and Pays de la Loire are at 14%, Normandy and Occitanie at 8%, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur at 6%, and Corsica at 0%.

How to read the map — and its catch

The snapshot covers about 9,900 stations. A station counts as "in shortage" if it has run out of either diesel or petrol. But petrol only counts as missing when every petrol grade the station sells (SP95-E10, SP95, SP98) is gone. So a station with only SP98 left looks fine in the statistics, even if the E10 your car and budget rely on has run out. E85 and LPG (GPL) are not counted at all.

The data is reported by the stations themselves. In practice: the map is a good guide, not a guarantee.

What to do in practice

• Check before you set off. On prix-carburants.gouv.fr you can search by fuel type, by town or postcode, by département, by station brand, and even along a route. There is also a services filter, for example a 24/7 card-payment pump.
• Know your fuel. Gazole is diesel; SP95-E10, SP95 and SP98 are petrol. On a rental car the fuel type is usually marked on the filler flap — worth checking in advance.
• Don't wait for the warning light. When supply is patchy, an empty tank turns finding a station into a real problem.
• Compare prices. The site lists stations so you can compare: neighbouring stations can differ noticeably.

What was promised for 1 November

This is a separate measure. On 7 October, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu announced that 10 million barrels of diesel from strategic stocks would be sold to distributors at cost. On 12 October he said diesel prices would fall from 1 November; first sales to distributors are scheduled for 28 October and the operation is planned to run for three months. The government expects a drop of 12 to 18 cents per litre; the measure also covers off-road diesel (GNR) and home heating oil (fioul domestique). Volumes released and cost reductions are to be published weekly.

This is an announced measure with a date, but nobody guarantees the final price at a given station: that depends on how much of the cut the seller passes on.

Background

Releasing strategic stocks is not new: in 2022 France released 7.5 million barrels as part of a collective operation, and in March 2026 Emmanuel Macron announced the release of 14.5 million barrels as part of a joint operation by 32 countries.

Separately, there is the indemnité carburant for people who drive to work — we covered it on 17 October.