Photo: Alamy
The United States may lift sanctions on Iranian oil cargo already on the water as the global markets continue to be rocked by Operation Epic Fury and the chokepoint on the Strait of Hormuz.
U.S Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo, “This is a coordinated effort, we had a break-the-glass plan across the administration, and at Treasury, we unsanctioned Russian oil – we knew there about 130 million barrels on the water. And, you know, we created supply that was beyond the Strait of Hormuz. So, we anticipated this. We knew there could be a temporary – and I want to emphasize temporary – chokepoint there. And there was 130 million barrels of floating storage.”
Bessent also said that there are roughly 140 million barrels of Iranian oil at sea right now, and the administration is considering un-sanctioning this energy supply as well.
“In the coming days, we may unsanction the Iranian oil that’s on the water,” he stated. “It’s about 140 million barrels, so depending on how you count it, that’s 10 days to two weeks of supply that the Iranians had been pushing out that would have all gone to China. In essence, we’d be using the Iranian barrels against the Iranians to keep the price down for the next 10 to 14 days, as we continue this campaign. So, we have lots of levers.”
Bessent said it was possible that the United States could authorize yet another release of the Strategic Petroleum Reserves, noting that President Trump’s decision to release 400 million barrels of oil is also working to assuage rising oil prices for Americans.
“The U.S. could unilaterally do another SRP release to keep the price down,” Bessent projected.
He also pointed out that the energy-independent environment President Trump has worked to create, beginning in his first term and into his second, was a significant factor in staving off high oil prices within the domestic U.S., even amid foreign conflict, describing America as “virtually energy independent.”
