US Treasury says no plans to renew waiver for Russian oil at sea, AP reports

Prefer on Google by Asami Terajima, The Kyiv Independent news desk U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent testifies during a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government hearing on "proposed budget estimates for fiscal year 2027 for the Department of the Treasury" on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on April 22, 2026. (Saul Loeb / AFP via Getty Images) Washington does not plan another renewal of a waiver to buy Russian oil and petroleum products stranded at sea, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told the Associated Press in an interview published on April 25. His statement comes after the U.S. Treasury Department issued a temporary license on April 17 renewing a sanctions waiver that allows countries to purchase Russian oil stranded at sea. The earlier renewal came just days after Bessent had said the U.S. would not extend the waiver. The general license, issued by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control, replaced a previously expired waiver that was valid until April 11. The U.S. Treasury chief claimed that the initial renewal came at the request of unspecified "vulnerable and poor countries" who approached him during the World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings last week. "But I wouldn't imagine that we'd have another extension. I think the Russian oil on the water has been largely sucked up," the U.S. official said. Bessent also said in the Associated Press interview that there is no plan to renew the exemption for Iranian oil at sea either. "And we think in the next two, three days, they're going to have to start shuttering production, which will be very bad for their wells," Bessent told the Associated Press. Global oil and gas prices surged after the United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran on Feb. 28. In response, Tehran closed the Strait of Hormuz, a route that carries roughly 20% of the world's oil supply. The war in the Middle East has been a boon for Russia, which reaped a windfall from higher energy prices and more demand for its oil and gas. The latest general license is set to expire on May 16 and is effective immediately. After granting the initial sanctions waiver in March, Bessent called the temporary authorization a "narrowly tailored, short-term measure" which applied "only to oil already in transit." Bessent further claimed that it "will not provide significant financial benefit to the Russian government, which derives the majority of its energy revenue from taxes assessed at the point of extraction."