Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced Thursday that the United States is weighing an extraordinary step: temporarily removing sanctions from Iranian crude oil currently floating on tankers in international waters. The announcement, made during a television interview, is intended to address soaring oil prices that have persisted since Iran began blocking the Strait of Hormuz.
The crisis at the Strait of Hormuz has had immediate and wide-ranging consequences for global energy markets. With an estimated 10 to 14 million barrels per day of oil unable to transit the world’s most important oil shipping lane, global prices have climbed above $100 per barrel and held there for nearly two weeks, fueling inflation concerns worldwide.
Bessent said the US has identified approximately 140 million barrels of Iranian crude sitting on tankers at sea — oil that had been bound for China — as an available emergency supply buffer. He estimated this volume could provide 10 to 14 days of relief if released to global markets through a targeted sanctions waiver, buying time for diplomatic and military solutions to the Hormuz standoff.
The Treasury has previously issued similar waivers for Russian oil, a move Bessent said added around 130 million barrels to global supply. An additional unilateral release from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve is also planned, going beyond the 400 million barrels pledged in a G7 coordinated release last week.
Analysts and sanctions experts, however, questioned the wisdom of the approach. They argued that any financial benefit Iran derives from selling its oil, even stranded oil, would serve to strengthen the regime at a time when the US is actively working to weaken it. The broader strategic contradiction of simultaneously fighting and financially enabling an adversary was noted repeatedly by commentators.