US clears purchases of Russian oil stranded at sea amid global supply shock

The United States has allowed other nations to buy Russian oil already loaded on tankers at sea, amid an ongoing war with Iran that is cutting supplies and driving up fuel prices.

While Washington insists the temporary measure will not benefit Russia, Moscow says the release of millions of barrels proves the global market cannot go without Russian crude.

U.S. lifts restrictions on Russian oil in transit

The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has issued a general license allowing other countries to purchase Russian crude oil and petroleum products.

The document published Thursday is “authorizing the delivery and sale of crude oil and petroleum products of Russian Federation origin loaded on vessels as of March 12, 2026.”

It specifies that all relevant operations, such as safe docking and offloading, are now permitted “through 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time, April 11, 2026.”

The OFAC is clear that its license does not authorize any other prohibited transactions or activities, including those involving Iran, its government, or goods and services originating from the Islamic Republic.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent described the move as a “decisive step” of President Donald Trump’s administration “to promote stability in global energy markets” and “to keep prices low.”

Posting on X, he emphasized this is a “narrowly tailored, short-term measure” that will not significantly benefit the Russian government in financial terms.

.@POTUS is taking decisive steps to promote stability in global energy markets and working to keep prices low as we address the threat and instability posed by the terrorist Iranian regime.

To increase the global reach of existing supply, @USTreasury is providing a temporary…

— Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (@SecScottBessent) March 12, 2026

America releases over 100 million barrels of Russian oil

Officials in Moscow are quite happy with Washington’s decision. Commenting on Telegram, Vladimir Putin’s Special Presidential Envoy on Foreign Investment and Economic Cooperation, Kirill Dmitriev, stated:

“The U.S. is effectively acknowledging the obvious: without Russian oil, the global energy market cannot remain stable.”

Reposting Bessent’s announcement, the Kremlin representative highlighted that after allowing India to buy crude from Russia, the U.S. is now lifting all restrictions on approximately 100 million barrels of Russian oil that’s currently in transit.

Last week, the OFAC granted India a 30-day waiver after oil briefly surpassed $100 per barrel amid an escalating conflict in the Middle East. At the time, President Trump promised additional measures to curb price growth.

Secretary of Energy Chris Wright insisted the U.S. was not giving Russia a sanctions relief, noting that “all of that oil is oil on the water that’s waiting in line to unload into China.”

“This is just expediting the flow of that oil into a refinery, it’s going to an Indian refinery instead of a Chinese refinery,” he told CNN, referring to the India authorization as a pragmatic solution “to get through these few weeks of tight energy supply.”

According to the Washington Post, the latest license will allow Russia to start selling around 128 million barrels of Russian oil that have already been loaded onto tankers, previously targeted in U.S. sanctions.

“Amid the growing energy crisis, further easing of restrictions on Russian energy sources appears increasingly inevitable, despite resistance from some in the Brussels bureaucracy,” Dmitriev added on Friday.

In a post on X, he also said:

“Russian energy is indispensable to easing the world’s largest energy crisis.”

Fuel prices across the EU have been surging after the U.S. and Israel started their strikes on Iran, giving Russia a chance to play the energy card again. Europe is phasing out oil and gas imports from Russia as part of sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine.

According to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, a return to Russian fossil fuels would be a “strategic blunder” for the Union. She recently warned this would make Europe “more dependent, vulnerable, and weaker.”

Following an assessment of the situation, “EU countries confirmed that they do not observe any security of supply risks at the moment. Oil stocks remain at a high level, gas storage filling levels in the EU remain stable,” according to a statement by the Commission’s Directorate-General for Energy.

Meanwhile, others are already considering buying Russian oil, now that the U.S. has opened a window. According to a press report, Thailand, which used to import 50% of its oil through the now closed Strait of Hormuz, is preparing to enter into talks for the purchase of Russian crude.

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