Reiterating that the United States had granted India “permission” to purchase Russian oil in the wake of the current turmoil in West Asia, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the country may lift sanctions further on crude from the nation.

In an interview with Fox Business on Friday (US time), Bessent hailed Indian refiners as “very good actors” for complying with the US’ call to stop buying sanctioned Russian oil this past fall. “They did. They were going to substitute it with US oil,” the top Donald Trump admin official said. “But to ease the temporary gap of oil around the world, we have given them permission to accept Russian oil. We may un-sanction other Russian oil.”

Bessent’s re-assertion of the US stance on Russian oil came a day after the nation under US President Donald Trump’s leadership gave India a temporary 30-day waiver, thereby allowing Russian oil cargoes stranded at sea to be sold to Indian buyers, as per senior US officials’ confirmation of the development to Reuters. The report was later confirmed by the US Treasury Secretary as well.

ALSO READ

India’s Russian Oil purchases ‘permitted’: US Treasury Secy

During his Fox Business interview on Friday, Bessent again insisted that there was “hundreds of millions of sanctioned barrels” of crude stranded at sea. “In essence, by unsanctioning them, Treasury can create supply,” he added.

Following the initial decision, Bessent confirmed on social media, “To enable oil to keep flowing into the global market, the Treasury Department is issuing a 30-day waiver to allow Indian refiners to purchase Russian oil.”

As the “permission” to buy Russian oil is expected to expire soon Bessent further noted, “This deliberately short-term measure will not provide significant financial benefit to the Russian government as it only authorises transactions involving oil already stranded at sea.”

Praising India as an “essential partner of the US, he also said that the United States was fully anticipating that New Delhi will ramp up US oil purchases in the future. “This stop-gap measure will alleviate pressure caused by Iran’s attempt to take global energy hostage.”

Brent crude prices soared past $90 a barrel on March 6 as the Iran war held back tankers from the Strait of Hormuz. According to a Bloomberg report, traders and energy executives warned that prices could surge to more than $100 per barrel if the conflict continued ahead. About 20% of the world’s oil consumption is estimated to flow through the strait daily.

In a separate interview with The Financial Times, Qatar’s Energy Minister Saad al-Kaabi issued a similar warning, saying that exports from the Gulf region could come to a halt “within weeks” if the ongoing war doesn’t halt.

He said that if the war continues for the coming weeks, “GDP growth around the world will be impacted”. The Qatar minister added, “Everybody’s energy price is going to go higher. There will be shortages of some products and there will be a chain reaction of factories that cannot supply.”

As Iran’s retaliatory attacks in the Gulf region have been detrimental to shipping routes passing through the Strait of Hormuz, the Treasury Secretary had earlier said, Trump’s “energy agenda has resulted in oil and gas production reaching the highest levels ever recorded.”

ALSO READ

India not facing any energy shortage: Oil minister

As per ANI, India sources about 40% of its oil imports from the Middle East. Consequently, a significant portion of those imports is transported through the Strait of Hormuz.

In the meantime, Petroleum Ministry Hardeep Puri said on Friday that India and its energy consumers had no cause of worry, as the country wasn’t suffering from a shortage of energy. “Our priority is to ensure availability of affordable and sustainable fuel for our citizens, and we are doing it comfortably,” he said on X. “There is no shortage of energy in India and there is no cause of worry for our energy consumers.”