US gives ‘permission’ for India to accept Russian oil already at sea

The United States has said it has given “permission” to India to buy Russian oil already on ships at sea in order to ease global supplies during the ongoing West Asia conflict.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the decision was aimed at addressing short-term supply concerns in global oil markets.

“The world is very well supplied in oil. Yesterday, the Treasury (Department) agreed to let our allies in India start buying Russian oil that was already on the water,” Bessent said in an interview with Fox Business on Friday.

He said India had previously complied with a request from Washington to halt purchases of sanctioned Russian oil.

“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 US oil. But to ease the temporary gap of oil around the world, we have given them permission to accept the Russian oil. We may unsanction other Russian oil,” he said.

Bessent said there were hundreds of millions of barrels of sanctioned crude currently at sea.

He added that releasing these supplies could help stabilise markets.

“There are hundreds of millions of sanctioned barrels of sanctioned crude on the water, and in essence, by unsanctioning them, Treasury can create supply. And we are looking at that. We are going to keep a cadence of announcing measures to bring relief to the market during this conflict,” he said.

Officials in the administration of US president Donald Trump have also stated that India has been allowed to purchase Russian oil already on ships, months after Washington imposed punitive tariffs on Delhi over its purchases from Moscow.

The Trump administration had earlier imposed a 25 per cent tariff on India for buying Russian oil, arguing that the purchases were helping finance Russia’s war against Ukraine.

US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on X on Friday that the move would help keep oil flowing into global markets during the conflict involving the United States, Israel and Iran.

“The United States is allowing our friends in India” to take Russian oil already on ships around southern Asia, refine it and release the supplies into the market quickly, Wright said.

“We have implemented short term measures to help keep oil prices down. We are allowing our friends in India to take oil that is already on ships, refine it, and move those barrels into the market quickly. A practical way to get supply flowing and ease pressure,” Wright said.

In an interview with ABC News Live, Wright said long-term oil supplies remained strong but there was a need to release additional supply into markets in the short term.

“But as oil gets bid up a little bit because of those constraints coming out of the Strait of Hormuz, we’re taking a short-term action to say all this floating Russian oil storage that’s around Southern Asia, it’s China just backed up, China does not treat their suppliers well, so there’s a bunch of floating barrels just sitting there.

“We’ve reached out to our friends in India and said, ‘Buy that oil. Bring it into your refineries’. That pulls stored oil immediately into Indian refineries and releases the pressure on other refineries around the world to buy oil that they’re no longer competing with the Indians for in that marketplace,” Wright said.

He said the move was intended as a temporary market intervention and did not signal a change in US policy toward Russia.

“So we have a number of measures like that that are short-term and temporary. This is no change in policy towards Russia. This is a very brief change in policy just to keep oil prices down a little bit better than we could otherwise,” Wright said.

On Thursday, the United States said it was issuing a temporary 30-day waiver allowing Indian refiners to purchase Russian oil amid escalating tensions with Iran.

“President Trump’s energy agenda has resulted in oil and gas production reaching the highest levels ever recorded. To enable oil to keep flowing into the global market, the Treasury Department is issuing a temporary 30-day waiver to allow Indian refiners to purchase Russian oil,” Bessent said.

He said the waiver was deliberately limited in scope.

“This deliberately short-term measure will not provide significant financial benefit to the Russian government, as it only authorises transactions involving oil already stranded at sea,” Bessent said.

He also described India as an important partner for the United States.

“India is an essential partner of the United States, and we fully anticipate that New Delhi will ramp up purchases of US oil. This stop-gap measure will alleviate pressure caused by Iran’s attempt to take global energy hostage,” he said.

Last month, the United States and India announced that they had reached a framework for an interim trade agreement.

President Trump also issued an Executive Order removing the 25 per cent punitive tariffs on India after New Delhi committed to stopping direct or indirect imports of Russian energy and increasing purchases of American energy products.

A statement from the US Treasury Department titled ‘Authorizing the Delivery and Sale of Crude Oil and Petroleum Products of Russian Federation Origin Loaded on Vessels as of March 5, 2026 to India’ outlined the terms of the waiver.

It said that “all transactions prohibited… that are ordinarily incident and necessary to the sale, delivery, or offloading of crude oil or petroleum products of Russian Federation origin loaded on any vessel, including vessels blocked under the above listed authorities, on or before 12:01 a.m. eastern standard time, March 5, 2026 are authorized through 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time, April 4, 2026, provided that the delivery or offloading of such crude oil or petroleum products occurs at a port” in India and the purchaser is an entity organised under Indian law.

The Treasury Department’s general licence said the waiver does not authorise any other transactions prohibited under existing executive orders.

It also stated that the measure does not permit any transactions involving Iran, the Government of Iran, or Iranian-origin goods or services that are restricted under the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations.