United States treasury secretary Scott Bessent on Friday said that America is not planning to renew a waiver allowing the purchase of Russian oil currently at sea.While talking to news agency Associated Press, Bessent also added that another waiver for Iranian oil at sea is “totally off the table.”“Not the Iranians. We have the blockade, and there’s no oil coming out,” Bessent said.“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,” he added.This comes after US issued a waiver for Russian oil sales and petroleum products in March to stabilise global energy markets after crude oil prices surged above USD 100 per barrel due to the closure Strait of Hormuz due to tensions between Iran and US.Last week, US decided to extend the sanctions waiver on Russian oil, issuing a fresh licence allowing the purchase of Russian oil and petroleum products that had already been loaded onto ships as of that day.The arrangement will remain in place until 12:01 am (0401 GMT) on May 16, replacing an earlier waiver that lapsed on April 11. The move comes despite treasury secretary Scott Bessent’s recent signal that such relief would not continue.The treasury department renewed the waiver two days after Bessent said at the White House that he had no plans to extend the sanctions relief.In an AP interview about the impact of the US-Israeli war on the global energy market and other topics, the US treasury secretary explained his previous change of heart and ruled out the notion of renewing sanctions waivers for both Russia and Iran.Bessent said during the World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings last week, “More than 10 of the most vulnerable and poorest countries came to me and said, Can you help?”“It was for those vulnerable and poor countries. But I wouldn’t imagine that we’d have another extension. I think the Russian oil on the water has been largely sucked up.”
