The United States said that it may temporarily ease sanctions on additional Russian crude oil to stabilise global energy markets, and called Indians “very good actors” for complying with earlier restrictions
on sanctioned crude.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Friday announced that Washington issued a temporary 30-day waiver to allow Indian refiners to buy Russian oil already on vessels, as global energy markets face supply pressures amid rising tensions in West Asia.
He emphasised that Washington allowed the purchases to prevent short-term disruptions in global oil supplies.
“The Indians had been very good actors. We had asked them to stop buying sanctioned Russian oil this fall. They did. They were going to substitute it with US oil. But to ease the temporary gap of oil around the world, we have given them permission to accept the Russian oil. We may unsanction other Russian oil,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in an interview to Fox Business.
He said that hundreds of millions of barrels of sanctioned Russian crude are currently stranded on ships due to sanctions. Allowing those cargoes to reach buyers could quickly boost global supply.
“By unsanctioning them, Treasury can create supply. And we are looking at that. We are going to keep a cadence of announcing measures to bring relief to the market during this conflict,” he added.
US Energy Secretary Chris Wright also said Washington had encouraged India to take the Russian oil already on ships around Southern Asia, refine it and move the stocks into the market quickly in order to ensure a flowing supply and ease pressure amid the ongoing conflict.
“We have implemented short term measures to help keep oil prices down. We are allowing our friends in India to take oil that is already on ships, refine it, and move those barrels into the market quickly. A practical way to get supply flowing and ease pressure,” Wright said in a post on X.
In an interview to ABC News Live, Wright said that long-term oil supplies are “abundant” and there are no worries regarding that, but in the short term, there is a need to get oil on the market.
“But as oil gets bid up a little bit because of those constraints coming out of the Strait of Hormuz, we’re taking a short-term action to say all this floating Russian oil storage that’s around Southern Asia, it’s China just backed up, China does not treat their suppliers well, so there’s a bunch of floating barrels just sitting there,” he said.
“We’ve reached out to our friends in India and said, ‘Buy that oil. Bring it into your refineries’. That pulls stored oil immediately into Indian refineries and releases the pressure on other refineries around the world to buy oil that they’re no longer competing with the Indians for in that marketplace,” Wright said.
These remarks came a day after the US Treasury Secretary announced that the Treasury Department is issuing a temporary 30-day waiver to allow Indian refiners to purchase Russian oil, saying the move was intended to stabilise global energy supplies amid rising tensions in West Asia.
“President Trump’s energy agenda has resulted in oil and gas production reaching the highest levels ever recorded. To enable oil to keep flowing into the global market, the Treasury Department is issuing a temporary 30-day waiver to allow Indian refiners to purchase Russian oil,” Bessant said.
Terming India an “essential partner” of the United States, Secretary Bessent said that Washington anticipates that New Delhi will ramp up its purchase of US oil. “This stop-gap measure will alleviate pressure caused by Iran’s attempt to take global energy hostage.”
The waiver came as the ongoing tensions in the gulf region as missile strikes in several Gulf countries have impacted the production of oil. The situation has become more tense due to Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow maritime chokepoint that handles 20 percent of the global oil supplies.
India is considered to be the largest buyer of Russian crude oil after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. However, India began to cut its purchases of Russian oil earlier this year after Washington imposed an additional 25% tariff for buying Russian oil. Following this, the US lowered the tariffs imposed on New Delhi. Additionally, both India and the US have also secured an interim trade agreement with each other, escalating ties between the two countries.
(With inputs from agencies)
