US reverses on pledge not to renew Russian oil waiver

Moscow says it has always treated Western energy sanctions as hollow and illegal

The US has renewed a sanctions exemption allowing Russian crude and petroleum products already loaded onto tankers to be delivered and sold freely, the US Treasury Department has announced. The move came despite a pledge by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made two days prior that the waiver would not be extended.

On Friday, the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued a general license covering Russian oil loaded onto vessels as of April 17 and authorizing transactions through May 16. The waiver replaces an earlier 30-day order – which took effect on March 19 – and extends to services including safe docking, crew safety, emergency repairs, and insurance, even for previously sanctioned vessels.

The goal of the initial waiver was to contain the spike in oil prices caused by the Iran war and the de-facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

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The move came despite Bessent telling reporters on Wednesday that waivers on Russian and Iranian oil would not be extended.

In late March, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov dismissed the notion of the waiver as meaningless. “The US graciously allowed the Russian Federation to sell its oil that was already at sea,” he said. “Tankers that are already at sea and heading to their destinations continue moving exactly as they did before.”

Sanctions “do not exist for us, as well as for our conscientious, respectable partners,” Lavrov added.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has called for a peaceful resolution of the Middle East conflict, but acknowledged that Russia has seen a sharp rise in demand for oil. According to the spokesman, Russia “has been and remains a reliable supplier of both oil and gas.”

Russia has emerged as a beneficiary of the Iran war due to soaring oil prices, reaping an estimated $150 million in additional daily revenue.

EU officials have criticized the decision to waive sanctions on Russian oil. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said it is “not the time to relax sanctions against Russia.”

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky said the exemption “could provide Russia with about $10 billion for the war.”