Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wants Iranian crude oil currently flowing nowhere to start flowing west toward global markets, he revealed Thursday. Bessent said the administration is considering temporarily lifting sanctions on approximately 140 million barrels of Iranian crude stranded on tankers — oil originally heading east toward China — to ease the oil price crisis caused by Iran’s deepening Strait of Hormuz blockade.
The Hormuz crisis has now persisted for close to two weeks, removing between 10 and 14 million barrels of daily supply from global markets and driving crude prices above $100 per barrel. The deepening disruption has created significant economic challenges for oil-importing nations worldwide and has generated increasing urgency for supply responses of matching scale.
Bessent identified the eastbound Iranian crude on tankers as an available westbound supply source. A targeted temporary waiver could redirect this oil toward global markets, providing roughly two weeks of price relief during the US campaign to force Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. He characterized the move as a practical response to an extraordinary supply challenge.
The Treasury has previously redirected Russian oil through a comparable waiver, adding approximately 130 million barrels to world supply. An additional unilateral US Strategic Petroleum Reserve release beyond the G7’s 400 million barrel commitment is also in development, with the administration maintaining its policy against any financial market intervention.
Compliance and geopolitical experts raised concerns. They argued that redirecting Iranian crude westward would generate oil revenues for the Tehran regime regardless of the oil’s ultimate destination, providing funds for military activities and regional proxy support. Critics warned that wanting Iranian crude to flow to new markets is an understandable crisis management impulse, but the strategic consequences of enabling that flow could outweigh the supply benefit achieved.