US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says the United States may remove sanctions on Iranian oil stranded in tankers in a bid to increase global supplies and reduce prices in world crude markets.
Bessent made the comments in an interview with Fox Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria” program on Thursday, saying that “In the coming days, we may unsanction the Iranian oil that’s on the water. It’s about 140 million barrels.”
He noted that the addition of sanctioned Iranian oil into global supplies would help push oil prices down for the next 10 to 14 days.
Oil prices have shot above $100 per barrel for much of the past two weeks as the US-Israeli adventurism against Iran has made shipping in the Strait of Hormuz risky for tankers.
Iran has warned it will not allow oil bound for the US, Israeli occupied territories and their allies to pass through the strait.
Amid the rising prices, the Treasury was recently forced to allow the sale of sanctioned Russian oil stranded in tankers, which reportedly added 130 million barrels to global supplies.
In his remarks, Bessent said Washington would take other measures to boost supply, including a unilateral release of stocks from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve above last week’s coordinated joint G7 release of 400 million barrels.
Experts, however, say the release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) could contribute to increased market instability, since it often risks depleting its reserves, leaving the US vulnerable during more severe crises.
International oil prices surged following a US-Israeli attack on Iran’s South Pars Gas Field on Wednesday, with Brent crude rising above $109 per barrel.
The Islamic Republic responded by targeting US-linked energy companies in the Persian Gulf countries from which it is carrying a war of terrorism on Iran.
According to ship tracking data, Iran is allowing a small but growing number of commercial ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.
Michelle Wiese Bockmann, an analyst at Windward, said that a growing number of ships have been rerouting via Iran’s territorial waters, suggesting that Tehran is allowing “permission-based transits to friendly countries”.
“Western-affiliated vessels won’t voluntarily come into Iranian waters, but likely Chinese, Indian and others will,” Bockmann said in a post on X.
Traffic through the strait, which normally carries about one-fifth of global oil supplies, has plunged more than 95 percent since the start of the United States and Israel’s war on Iran.
Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Abbas Araghchi said on Monday that the strait is “open, but closed to our enemies”.
