In a rare U-turn, Washington has announced a new 30-day general licence permitting countries worldwide, including India, to continue purchasing energy from Russia without facing US sanctions.
On Friday, Trump administration issued a temporary waiver allowing India and others to buy sanctioned Russian oil and petroleum products at sea for roughly a month. The move aims to stabilise global energy markets, which have surged amid the US-Israel war with Iran, according to the Reuters report.
In its website, the US Treasury Department posted the license, permitting countries to purchase Russian oil loaded onto vessels from that day until May 16.
This move comes just two days after the US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that would not be renewing two previous 30-day licences issued in March that had permitted the purchase of sanctioned Russian and Iranian energy, respectively.
“We will not be renewing the general license on Russian oil, and we will not be renewing the general license on Iranian oil,” Bessent said.
As per the order issued by the US Treasury late Friday local time, a new general licence replace the earlier licenses of 30-day waiver, that expired on April 11.
However, the buying of Iranian energy will no longer be permitted under the revised framework.
The US Treasury’s move came even as multiple reports indicated that officials from several Asian countries, including India, had been urging Washington to extend the sanctions waivers, first issued in March.
As per the Al Jazeera, Russia’s presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev said the initial waiver would release around 100 million barrels of Russian crude, roughly equivalent to nearly a day’s global output.
However, while the sanctions relief may briefly increase global oil supply, it has not stopped prices from rising sharply, largely due to the partial closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a global oil chokepoint that handled about 20% of the world’s daily oil and gas shipments before the war.
The waivers could undermine Western efforts to curb Russia’s revenue for Moscow’s war in Ukraine and potentially place Washington at odds with its allies.
India’s crude oil imports from Russia rose sharply in March, according to data from a European think tank. The Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) released a report on Tuesday, that said, New Delhi’s purchases from Moscow more than tripled to $5.8 billion in March, up from $1.54 billion in February.
Meanwhile, Iran has affirmed that maritime movement vis Strait of Hormuz will strictly be controlled by Tehran, saying that passage will be allowed only through designated routes and under Iranian approval, amid rising tensions with the United States over regional security and negotiations.
