Skip to content
You can now search across every topic, entity and event.What's new
European Energy Markets
31JUL

Trump orders a DOJ oil-gouging probe

2 min read
09:44UTC

Trump ordered a Justice Department probe into oil-company gouging on 24 June, accusing firms of not cutting pump prices as Brent crude slid to $76.14.

← Back to Caverns restart, 21 points short of NovemberJump to analysis ↓
EconomicDeveloping
Key takeaway

Brent fell to $76.14 on a partial Hormuz recovery, and Trump blamed refiners for pump prices that have not followed.

Donald Trump ordered a Justice Department probe into oil-company "gouging" on 24 June, accusing firms of not cutting pump prices as Brent crude slid to $76.14, down from $77.08 the day before 1. Brent is the benchmark that sets the price of roughly two-thirds of internationally traded oil, so its direction feeds quickly into petrol prices and the politics around them.

The decline extends the slide that began as Trump's peak Hormuz threats were priced out at $77.54 on 22 June . What the market is reading is the gradual return of tanker traffic following General License X and the IMO evacuation, with UAE oil exports rebounding to about 85 per cent of pre-conflict levels 2.

The pricing runs ahead of the physical reality. Mines remain in the navigable channels and P&I war-risk cover is still withdrawn, so the strait is recovering for rescue and selective trade rather than reopening in full. Trump's gouging probe blames refiners for a gap between falling crude and steady pump prices that the incomplete reopening, not corporate conduct, largely explains.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

On 24 June, the price of Brent crude oil; the global benchmark used to set energy costs worldwide; fell to $76.14 per barrel. That is down from $77.08 the previous day and roughly 36% below its peak during the worst of the conflict. The UAE has largely restored its oil exports to about 85% of what they were before the fighting. President Trump ordered the US Justice Department to investigate oil companies for 'gouging'; charging customers too much at the pump even as wholesale prices fell. Brent's decline reflects growing confidence that more tankers are moving through the Strait of Hormuz, though the strait is not fully open: mines still need to be cleared and shipping insurance has not fully returned.

Sources:Trading Economics
Mentions:Donald Trump →Department of Justice →Brent Crude →Strait of Hormuz →General License X →United Arab Emirates (UAE) →
First Reported In

Update #137 · Iran and Oman claim the strait; US says no

Trading Economics· 24 Jun 2026
Read original →
Causes and effects
Caused by
Brent falls through Trump's war talk
Brent's further slide to $76.14 extends the pricing-out of war premium that began at $77.54 on 22 June.
Occurred 22 Jun 2026
Read story →
This Event
Trump orders a DOJ oil-gouging probe
The market is pricing in a Hormuz reopening that mines and absent insurance have not actually delivered.
Led to
Brent falls below its pre-war level
Brent fell from $76.14 on 24 June (ID:4468) to $72.64-$73.72 on 25 June, erasing the war premium across two sessions.
Occurred 25 Jun 2026
Read story →
Brent falls straight through the strikes
Brent fell from $76.14 on 24 June to $71.99 on 26 June, a 5.4 per cent decline through the IRGC attack and CENTCOM counter-strike, continuing the post-24 June downtrend.
Occurred 26 Jun 2026
Read story →
The sanctions that need no signature
Trump's DOJ oil-gouging probe sits alongside Economic Fury as motion not requiring settling the war.
Occurred 1 Jul 2026
Read story →
Different Perspectives
Spain's LNG terminal operators
Spain's LNG terminal operators
Spain's 9,145 GWh terminal inventory is the largest single stock in the EU LNG network, an option value that can reroute cargoes wherever the winter strip pays best rather than a cavern gas obligation tied to a fixed date. That flexibility matters more as Germany's cavern shortfall pushes more of the winter security question onto import infrastructure.
European Commission
European Commission
Brussels holds the bloc to 90% on a flexible window while Germany, holding roughly a quarter of EU storage capacity, tracks toward missing its own lower 80% figure by 21 points. A national shortfall this size in the anchor market matters more to bloc security than the flexible timetable alone can absorb.
French power exporters and CRE
French power exporters and CRE
French day-ahead rose in step with Germany but by less, reopening a EUR 7-17 premium that makes northward export flows commercially attractive again after the EUR 43.09 discount evaporated in days. CRE separately authorised RTE and Enedis to buy flexibility locally, betting the coming winter's binding constraint is grid congestion rather than a shortage of firm capacity.
TTF trading desk
TTF trading desk
A visible national shortfall like Germany's 21-point gap is a directional signal, not noise, for a desk holding the summer-winter spread. TTF's flat EUR 58-60 range through this week's German price swings says the market has not yet chosen to reprice refill risk into the front of the curve.
German cavern and CCGT operators
German cavern and CCGT operators
German caverns kept buying prompt gas at TTF near EUR 58-60 through the inversion; the wind collapse to 2.4 GW then flipped the spark spread to plus EUR 29 and put turbines back in the same queue. Every day turbines win that bid, injection at a third of the 877 GWh/day pace needed falls further behind.
Slovakia
Slovakia
Slovakia says it dropped its hold-out on the 21st sanctions package only after Ursula von der Leyen personally signed written gas-price and supply guarantees. The Council of the European Union's own 17,238-character release on the package names neither Slovakia nor any guarantee, leaving Bratislava's account unconfirmed by the institutional record.