The US Treasury Department has extended a waiver to allow countries to buy sanctioned Russian oil and petroleum products at sea for about a month, as the Trump administration looks to boost oil supplies due to the global disruption caused by its war on Iran.
The Treasury allowed purchases of the oil loaded on vessels as of Friday through to May 16, an extension of an original waiver that expired on April 11, according to a document posted to the department’s website.
Russia’s presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev had said the first waiver would free up 100 million barrels of Russian crude, equal to almost a day’s worth of global output.
The move was previously criticised in some quarters, including by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, as countries in the West have been using sanctions to deprive Russia of revenue from oil that had funded its war in Ukraine.