US grants short-term waiver for stranded Russian oil sales to India

The United States government has temporarily eased economic sanctions on Russia to allow Russian oil currently stranded at sea to be sold to India.

In a statement on Thursday, the United States Department of the Treasury said its Office of Foreign Assets Control issued a Russia-related licence authorising the delivery and sale of crude oil and petroleum products of Russian origin that had already been loaded onto vessels as of March 5, 2026.

According to the statement, the authorised transactions, including shipments involving vessels blocked under various sanctions regimes, will remain valid until the end of the day on April 3, 2026.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the waiver was granted to ensure continued oil supply to global markets.

“To enable oil to keep flowing into the global market,” Bessent wrote in a post on X, explaining the rationale behind the decision.

He noted that the short-term measure would not provide significant financial benefit to the Russian government, as it only permits transactions involving oil already stranded at sea.

According to him, the arrangement would also help ease pressure created by Iran’s actions in the global energy market.

The move comes despite India’s earlier indication that it would halt purchases of Russian oil as part of a broader trade agreement with the United States.

In November, US President Donald Trump imposed sanctions on major Russian oil companies, including Lukoil and Rosneft, in a rare effort to pressure Moscow over the war in Ukraine.

The sanctions, considered among the strongest measures taken by the Trump administration against Russia over the conflict, forced major buyers of Russian oil to seek alternative suppliers.

Meanwhile, Russia has reportedly assembled a fleet of ageing oil tankers with opaque ownership structures in an attempt to bypass sanctions imposed by the United States, the European Union, and the Group of Seven (G7) following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.