The Trump administration on Thursday issued a brand new license permitting nations to temporarily buy sure Russian oil merchandise, the identical day Brent crude costs settled above $100 per barrel for the primary time since August 2022 because the battle with Iran drags on.
Temporarily lifting the sanctions on oil from Russia, a serious exporter, comes regardless of earlier US strain on Russian oil firms as a part of a bid to stem the stream of money funding Moscow’s battle in Ukraine.
“To increase the global reach of existing supply, @USTreasury is providing a temporary authorization to permit countries to purchase Russian oil currently stranded at sea,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wrote on social media. “This narrowly tailored, short-term measure applies only to oil already in transit and will not provide significant financial benefit to the Russian government, which derives the majority of its energy revenue from taxes assessed at the point of extraction.”
The license, posted to the US Treasury website, solely applies to Russian crude or petroleum merchandise loaded on vessels as of March 12. The license authorizes these shipments by way of April 11.
Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and rating member on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations criticized the choice on social media. “As Putin helps Iran target Americans in the Middle East, @POTUS is now filling the Kremlin’s war coffers. Instead of squeezing Russia’s faltering economy, the President’s ill-planned war is giving Putin a windfall while American families face higher prices,” Shaheen wrote.
NCS beforehand reported that the US has granted Indian refiners a 30-day waiver to purchase Russian oil presently stranded at sea. Bessent, at the time, stated the transfer was “to enable oil to keep flowing into the global market.”
The battle, now in its second week, has seen the Strait of Hormuz, by way of which one-fifth of the world’s oil travels, successfully closed to tanker journey. Oil costs have jumped, and analysts, economists and merchants have warned that even a speedy finish to the battle received’t essentially imply a fast re-opening of the strait.
As the power scarcity worsens, nations have scrambled to stem the financial impression by curbing consumption, capping gasoline costs and tapping into emergency oil reserves.