The United States on Friday said it is “allowing” India to process Russian crude oil that is already being transported near southern Asia, describing the move as a temporary step aimed at stabilising global oil supplies amid tensions in West Asia.
Earlier, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had announced a 30-day waiver allowing Indian refiners to purchase Russian oil under limited conditions.
Short-Term Step To Stabilise Oil Supply
Explaining the measure, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the move is designed to ensure that oil already afloat in the region quickly enters the market.
“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 a post on X.
Speaking in an interview with ABC News Live, Wright noted that while global oil availability remains strong over the long term, immediate supply constraints have created short-term pressures.
“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,” he said.
According to Wright, Washington encouraged New Delhi to utilise these stranded supplies.
“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,” he said.
No Shift In US Policy On Russia
Wright stressed that the waiver is temporary and does not signal any broader shift in US policy towards 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,” he added.
Bessent had earlier described the waiver as a carefully limited step that would not significantly benefit Moscow financially.
“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,” Bessent said.
The development comes against the backdrop of earlier tensions between Washington and New Delhi over India’s purchase of Russian crude. US President Donald Trump had previously imposed a 25 per cent punitive tariff on India, arguing that continued purchases of Russian oil were helping sustain Moscow’s war effort in Ukraine.
However, last month the two countries announced a framework for an interim trade agreement. Following that, Trump signed an executive order withdrawing the 25 per cent tariffs, citing India’s commitment to end direct or indirect imports of Russian energy and expand purchases of American energy products.
