1. The short answer
Fuel rationing is a government-ordered limit on how much petrol, diesel or heating oil each customer may buy, and as of 17 September 2026 none of the countries covered here, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Spain, the UK or the US, had ordered it. Slovenia is the exception: since 23 March 2026 it has capped private buyers at 50 litres a day and commercial and farm buyers at 200 litres a day, the first such measure in the EU during the current disruption, confirmed by several independent reports (Newsweek, 24 March 2026, citing Reuters and BBC News). Part of the current pressure traces back to the closure of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz glossary entry, the chokepoint behind the reserve releases and speed-limit debates covered below.
Rationing is the last step on a ladder, not the first response to a shortage. This page sets out that ladder, the law behind it in seven jurisdictions, and what a household can still do before any order is made.
2. What comes before rationing, and who decides
Before any government limits what a driver can buy, the standard sequence starts with releasing mandatory oil reserves and, where relevant, IEA-coordinated action, and only escalates further if that is not enough. Switzerland's own overview of the sequence, published 15 September 2026, describes it as an appeal for voluntary saving, then reserve releases, then speed limits, with rationing kept explicitly as a last resort (dievolkswirtschaft.ch, 15 September 2026). The IEA's collective release of 19 March 2026, 426 million barrels from 33 member countries, was announced as a bridge measure to cover the period until Hormuz shipping reopens, not as a supplement to national rationing (IEA, 19 March 2026). The scale of that release and the reserves behind it are explained in our strategic reserve glossary entry and our IEA release mechanism glossary entry.
If reserve releases and voluntary appeals are not enough, the steps that follow, based on the 2026 Swiss and French overviews and the German precedent from 1973 and 1974, typically run in this order:
- Appeal for voluntary saving, such as Switzerland's call to shift to bicycles or public transport (dievolkswirtschaft.ch, 15 September 2026).
- Speed limit reduction on motorways, as West Germany imposed at 100 km/h from November 1973 to March 1974 (motorsport-total.com).
- Driving bans or car-free days, such as West Germany's four car-free Sundays on 25 November and 2, 9 and 16 December 1973, ordered under the Energy Security Act of 9 November 1973 (bpb.de).
- A quantity cap per fill-up without a ration card, the plan French prefects hold ready at 20 to 30 litres per vehicle per stop (Le Tribunal du Net, 14 April 2026).
- Reduced opening hours or requisition of individual filling stations for emergency and essential traffic only.
- Formal allocation with ration cards, described by Swiss authorities as the true last resort (dievolkswirtschaft.ch, 15 September 2026).
- Fixed daily quantities per person or business, the stage Slovenia reached on 23 March 2026, at 50 litres a day for private drivers and 200 litres a day for commercial and farm use (Newsweek, 24 March 2026).
3. Who is allowed to order it, country by country
Each of the seven jurisdictions on this page has its own named law for ordering fuel controls, and other than Slovenia itself, none had activated it for rationing as of 17 September 2026. The table below gives the authority, the law by name and year, and the source for each.
| Country | Authority | Legal basis | As of | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Germany | Federal government / Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs | Energy Security Act 1975 (in force; the 1973 version expired in 1974) | current law, not used for driving bans since 1974 | Bundestag Research Services, WD 7-064/08 |
| Germany, reserve | Erdölbevorratungsverband (EBV), released by ministry order | Petroleum Stockholding Act (ErdölBevG), recast 2012 | 90-day reserve of net imports | ebv-oil.org |
| Austria | Federal Minister for Economic Affairs | Petroleum Stockholding Act 2012 (EBG 2012) | release process opened 11 March 2026 | BMWET/OTS, 11 March 2026 |
| Switzerland | Federal Council / WBF, plus the Delegate for National Economic Supply | National Economic Supply Act (LVG), 17 June 2016 | reserve covers 4.5 months of normal demand without imports | dievolkswirtschaft.ch, 15 September 2026 |
| France | Prefects, department level, no Prime Minister approval needed for first steps | Code de la défense Art. L1111-7, Plan ORSEC "Hydrocarbures"; requisitions under CGCT Art. L2215-1(4) | 2026 plan: 20 to 30 L per stop if activated | Le Tribunal du Net, 14 April 2026 |
| United Kingdom | Secretary of State for Energy | Energy Act 1976, Sections 1 and 2 | draft Downstream Oil Resilience Bill (2021) excludes rationing; 2026 enactment status not verified | Wikipedia, Energy Act 1976; UK Parliament BEIS Committee, 12 November 2021 |
| United States | President, with Congress approving a Standby Gasoline Rationing Plan | Emergency Petroleum Allocation Act 1973; Energy Policy and Conservation Act 1975; 50 U.S.C. App. § 2075 | authority in force, not activated | Wikipedia, Emergency Petroleum Allocation Act |
Spain's own reserve, managed through CORES, totals about 420 million barrels, equivalent to roughly 92 days of consumption, split between 42 state-held days and about 50 days held by industry, slightly above the 90-day minimum the IEA requires of its members (El Independiente, 11 March 2026, updated 12 March 2026).
4. Slovenia 2026 against the 1973/74 precedent
Slovenia's 2026 measure and West Germany's 1973/74 restrictions sit on almost the same escalation ladder, fifty years apart, but Slovenia jumped straight to fixed daily quantities while West Germany stopped one rung lower, at driving bans and a speed limit. West Germany's restrictions ran for about six months, from November 1973 until they lapsed on 24 May 1974 (Bundestag Research Services, WD 7-064/08); Slovenia's rationing, in force since 23 March 2026, has no end date in the sources checked for this page. That earlier disruption is one entry in a longer pattern our oil shock glossary entry traces, and the legal tool used against Slovenia's own neighbours, an oil embargo rather than a rationing order, is covered separately in our oil embargo history glossary entry.
Slovenia's own stated reason differs from West Germany's: it points to supply bottlenecks combined with cross-border tank tourism, drivers crossing from Austria to buy fuel at Slovenia's regulated, lower price (Newsweek, 24 March 2026). Newsweek's follow-up report of 1 April 2026 names several other countries with fuel limits outside Europe, among them Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Cambodia, Bangladesh and Indonesia, but gives no exact introduction dates or litre limits for most of them, so this page treats those as unconfirmed rather than dated facts.
5. What this means for your tank and your bill
With no rationing order in force in the countries this page covers, the sensible household move is routine, not urgent: keep your tank from running empty, order heating oil with enough lead time before winter demand peaks, and check your own country's private storage rules rather than stockpiling on rumour. Several countries limit how much fuel a household may legally keep in canisters or a private tank for fire-safety reasons; the exact litre limits vary by jurisdiction and are not detailed in the sources checked for this page, so confirm the current rule with your local fire authority or fuel supplier before buying extra containers.
The signals that would come before any rationing order, based on the ladder above, are an official appeal to cut consumption, a proposed speed limit, or an announced reserve release beyond the routine kind; none of the seven countries on this page had reached even the first of those signals as of 17 September 2026. If you want to see what a change in your own fuel or heating bill would mean, run your numbers through our calculator, and for the country most relevant to drivers here, see our UK petrol and diesel price forecast.
See what a price change, not rationing, would do to your own fuel bill.
Run the calculator6. What fuel rationing is not
Fuel rationing is not the same as the IEA's reserve release, not the same as force majeure on a supply contract, and a contingency plan is not the same as an order already in force. The IEA's 426-million-barrel release of 19 March 2026 was a supply-side, government-and-industry action meant to bridge a shipping disruption; it placed no limit on what any individual driver could buy, which is the defining feature of rationing itself (IEA, 19 March 2026). It is also a different legal tool from the private contract clause explained in our force majeure glossary entry, which lets a seller skip a delivery without paying damages but does not itself limit end-customer purchases.
The number most often misquoted is France's 20 to 30 litres per fill-up: that is a prefectural contingency plan reported on 14 April 2026, ready to be activated if needed, not a nationwide limit already in effect as of 17 September 2026 (Le Tribunal du Net, 14 April 2026). Likewise, the UK's draft Downstream Oil Resilience Bill, published in 2021, explicitly excludes rationing, allocation or price control powers, and no source checked for this page confirms whether it had even become law by 2026.