The US Treasury has issued a narrowly targeted, 30‑day sanctions waiver allowing Indian refiners to accept Russian‑origin crude and petroleum cargoes already loaded aboard tankers by way of helping fill the gap left by the ongoing war between Iran and the US/Israeli coaliton, which has paralysed hundreds of tankers in the Middle East. The waiver runs from 12:01 a.m. EST on March 5, runs until 12:01 a.m. EDT on April 4 and is limited to deliveries into Indian ports to purchasers organised under Indian law. The licence covers essential voyage services required to complete these shipments – bunkering, crewing, vessel management, piloting, insurance, classification, salvage and port services – and permits actions needed to safeguard vessels, crews and the environment. It explicitly excludes new loadings after the cutoff and does not authorise transactions involving Iranian‑origin goods or services beyond those strictly necessary to finish permitted deliveries. “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,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, adding the waiver is intended to keep oil flowing into global markets while limiting revenue flows to Moscow and encouraging future US energy sales to India. The stop‑gap eases immediate market disruption from the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz by letting a defined set of cargoes complete voyages, while narrowing sanction relief to avoid reopening a broader channel of finance to Russia. googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1_95_0_1_2'); }); TagsRussia United States