The Trump administration will extend for another month a waiver allowing the sale of Russian crude already loaded on tankers, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Monday.
The move is aimed at keeping more oil on global markets and tempering crude prices as the war in Iran, now nearing its third month, continues to choke off shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. But critics have blasted the waiver as allowing Russia to profit from elevated oil prices and enriching Moscow’s war machine.
The U.S. benchmark crude price was up about 2 percent on Monday to around $103 a barrel.
The general license from Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control allows any country to purchase Russian oil already on the water for another month. It extends the sanctions relief, first issued in March and renewed in April, for a third month.
