RIYADH, October 22, 2026 — Saudi Arabia has agreed to supply France with extra diesel “for as many months as necessary,” the Élysée Palace said on Wednesday, sealing a three-day Gulf tour by President Emmanuel Macron that secured Paris nearly 295,000 tonnes of diesel a month — just over 10 percent of the country’s national consumption.
The unannounced Riyadh stop came at the end of a whirlwind itinerary that took Macron to Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar, as soaring fuel prices and violent cost-of-living riots at home turned energy diplomacy into a domestic political emergency. France’s presidency said the visit was intended to show solidarity with Saudi Arabia after intensified Houthi attacks on the kingdom, and to advance efforts to secure and diversify France’s hydrocarbon supplies.
Riyadh’s open-ended diesel pledge
Macron met Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at Al-Yamamah Palace, where the two leaders agreed that Saudi Arabia would keep extra diesel flowing to France with no fixed end date, the Élysée told AFP. An AFP reporter on the scene said Macron spent less than three hours on the ground. The Saudi Press Agency said the talks covered bilateral ties, regional and international developments, and coordination on security.
The Saudi pledge sits atop a package assembled across the tour. The United Arab Emirates committed to about 100,000 tonnes of diesel a month, and Bahrain is expected to supply another 100,000 tonnes monthly, the presidency said, while Saudi Arabia’s earlier commitment of 95,000 tonnes a month for October and November takes the combined total to 295,000 tonnes. TotalEnergies, whose chief executive Patrick Pouyanné travelled with the president, is to buy and ship the fuel.
Pouyanné told reporters the agreements would reassure the French public, adding that the country would not run out of diesel in February, according to AFP. Diesel has been the worst-affected fuel in Europe’s energy crunch, with the French average above €2.30 a litre — about 44 percent up on a year earlier — as Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz keeps prices high.
A tour built on fuel and security
Qatar added liquefied natural gas to the package, committing around two terawatt-hours of LNG a month for the winter season, officials said. Kuwait separately pledged diesel and kerosene for the French overseas territories of Mayotte and Réunion, with those cargoes to be routed through Oman to avoid the blockaded strait.
The Gulf cargoes come on top of 10 million barrels released from France’s strategic reserves, a measure announced on October 7 that the government said would take 12 to 18 cents a litre off pump prices from November — savings that, officials acknowledged, have yet to reach the forecourt.
Security was woven into every stop. Macron said France had offered help to rehabilitate and secure the Saudi pipeline site at Yanbu on the Red Sea, which Houthi attacks have repeatedly targeted, describing the role as defensive. France is also sending military assets to the kingdom under an earlier agreement to help protect the port, while the United Kingdom announced it would deploy fighter jets to help shield Saudi Arabia — both countries insisting their support is purely defensive.
Diplomacy beyond the fuel deal
In Doha, Macron and Qatari leaders jointly called for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and the full implementation of the Gaza ceasefire, Al Jazeera reported. Macron also pushed back at critics at home, telling reporters he was simply “doing his job” in a bid to ease tensions over fuel prices after the October 17 protests spiralled into some of the worst rioting France has seen in years.
“There must be no sign of febrility,” he said. “I am fulfilling my role. I am at my post.”
Analysts said the European security moves protect Saudi oil exports that matter to European energy markets and bolster the Gulf alliance as Washington shows reluctance to offer direct military help — while warning they risk drawing Paris and London deeper into the protracted Saudi-Houthi conflict.
