The Trump administration is temporarily lifting longstanding sanctions banning the “sale, delivery, or offloading of crude oil or petroleum products of Iranian origin” for the next month in hopes of curbing the meteoric rise in oil prices that has threatened economies across the globe since the start of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran last month.
A “General License” issued by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control released late Friday permits the purchase of Iranian oil that has already been loaded onto “any vessel” — including ships that have already been sanctioned — by waiving ten separate sets of sanctions that have targeted both Russian and Iranian oil.
The sanctions that are being temporarily set aside have been in place for years, with many originating during Trump’s first term.
They were imposed to punish Russia for its unprovoked 2022 invasion of Ukraine and other “harmful foreign activities” and to penalize Iran for years of malign activities, human rights violations, support for terrorism and pursuit of weapons of mass destruction.
By waiving the sanctions, the U.S. will allow Iranian and Russian oil that is currently at sea to be purchased and unloaded without penalty until April 19, at which point the sanctions will resume unless the Treasury extends the waiver.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent previewed the move during an appearance on Fox Business Network on Thursday, when he said lifting the sanctions would permit approximately 140 million barrels of oil to enter global markets that have been roiled by the nearly three-week-old war.
“That’s about 10 days to two weeks of supply that the Iranians had been pushing out that would have all gone to China,” Bessent said.
“In essence, we will 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.”
Bessent added that a previous sanctions waiver for Russian oil freed up approximately 130 million barrels.
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