The United States will not renew Iranian and Russian oil waivers, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told The Associated Press on Saturday, referring to a policy allowing for the purchase of petroleum products from sanctioned countries if said assets are already at sea.
“We have the blockade [on Iran],” said Bessent, “and there’s no oil coming out. 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.”
The Russian waiver was issued in March 2026 and extended on April 18, according to the AP, while the Iranian waiver was issued soon after the US blockade of Iran took effect.
The waivers were issued to ease the strain on global energy markets caused by the Russia-Ukraine war and the US-Iran war, the AP reported.
The report noted that Bessent is aware of the potential implications of not renewing the waivers, particularly the effect on “vulnerable and poor countries.”
“Can you help?” Bessent quoted such countries as saying, as he spoke last week at meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
“But I wouldn’t imagine that we’d have another extension,” added Bessent. “I think the Russian oil on the water has been largely sucked up.”
On Wednesday, the Treasury Department announced it was intensifying pressure on Iranian oil transportation infrastructure through new sanctions targeting entities within the network of Iranian oil shipping magnate Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani,
Shamkhani is the son of Ali Shamkhani, a key Iranian security and nuclear figure killed in US-Israeli strikes on February 28 at the start of Operation Rising Lion/Epic Fury.
The Treasury Department had previously sanctioned the network in July 2025, issuing 115 sanctions against the group, according to a Treasury press release.
“Treasury is moving aggressively with Economic Fury by targeting regime elites like the Shamkhani family that attempt to profit at the expense of the Iranian people,” Bessent said in the statement.
In addition, the Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Seyed Naiemaei Badroddin Moosavi, an Iranian national and Hezbollah financier, as well as three companies linked to a money-laundering scheme involving the exchange of Venezuelan gold for Iranian oil.
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