To cool prices, Trump eyes un-sanctioning Russia oil

Bessent told Fox Business that the U.S. would allow India to buy Russian barrels.

“Yesterday, Treasury agreed to let our allies in India start buying Russian oil that was already on the water,” Bessent said. 

“The Indians had been very good actors. We had asked them to stop buying sanctioned Russian oil this fall. They did. They were going to substitute it with U.S. oil, but to ease the temporary gap of oil around the world, we have given them permission to accept the Russian oil,” he continued. 

“We may unsanction other Russian oil,” he added to host Larry Kudlow.

“The other thing Treasury can do here, Larry, is, there are hundreds of millions of… barrels of sanctioned crude on the water and in essence, by unsanctioning them, Treasury can create supply,” Bessent said. “We are looking at that. We’re going to keep a cadence of announcing measures to bring relief to the market.”

Oil prices have been on the rise all week after U.S. began its strikes on Iran, which is located near the Strait of Hormuz, a key oil shipping channel.

The equivalent of about 20 percent of the world’s oil consumption typically flows through the strait daily. 

On Friday, both international benchmark Brent Crude and U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate oil were trading at more than $90 per barrel, up about $20 in the last week.

Read more at TheHill.com.