Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday the administration is weighing the lifting of Iranian oil sanctions as a measure to prevent a prolonged price crisis, revealing that approximately 140 million barrels of Iranian crude stranded on tankers could soon be released to global markets. Bessent said preventing the crisis from becoming entrenched requires bold supply-side action, including potentially controversial measures like temporary Iranian sanctions relief.
Iran’s Hormuz blockade has been generating the prolonged price crisis the administration is seeking to prevent, removing between 10 and 14 million barrels of daily supply from global markets for close to two weeks. Without effective supply intervention, experts have warned that the price surge above $100 per barrel could become self-reinforcing, generating inflation, economic slowdown, and further market instability.
Bessent identified the Iranian crude on tankers — oil originally heading toward Chinese buyers — as a key tool for preventing the prolonged crisis scenario. A targeted temporary waiver could unlock this oil for global sale, providing roughly two weeks of supply support during the US campaign to resolve the Hormuz standoff.
The Treasury has previously used comparable prevention measures, including a waiver for Russian oil that added approximately 130 million barrels to world supply. An additional unilateral US Strategic Petroleum Reserve release beyond the G7’s 400 million barrel coordinated commitment is also in the pipeline, with the administration maintaining its clear opposition to financial market intervention.
Experts raised concerns about the prolonged crisis prevention argument. Compliance professionals and national security analysts warned that while preventing a prolonged price crisis is a legitimate goal, enabling Iranian oil revenues to achieve it would provide the Tehran regime with financial resources for military activities and proxy support. Critics argued that preventing one prolonged crisis — the price crisis — at the cost of potentially prolonging another — the geopolitical conflict — is a trade-off that requires more careful scrutiny.