The US declared a 30-day waiver allowing all countries to buy Russian oil, which caused a slight dip in world oil prices on Friday.
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) fell 0. 67% to $95. 09 per barrel, while Brent crude traded at $99. 99 per barrel, a 0. 47% decrease.
“To increase the global reach of existing supply, @USTreasury is providing a temporary authorization to allow nations to purchase Russian oil currently stranded at sea,” US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent wrote on X.
“This narrowly targeted, short-term approach only applies to oil already in transit and will not provide significant financial benefit to the Russian government, which derives the majority of its energy revenue from taxes assessed at the point of extraction,” Bessent stated.
He went on to say that the momentary spike in oil prices is a transient and short-term interruption that will ultimately be hugely beneficial to our country and economy.
The US waiver applies to petroleum goods and crude oil of Russian origin that are loaded onto ships at any time prior to 12:01 a. m. Eastern Daylight Time on March 12.
The United States declared on Wednesday that it would release 172 million barrels from its strategic petroleum reserves.
Conversely, the Indian government has stated that the crude supply situation is stable and that the volumes obtained are higher than those that Hormuz would have provided.
Prior to this crisis, about 45% of India’s crude imports came via the Hormuz route.
India has now acquired crude volumes that are higher than what the disrupted Strait route would have provided over the same time frame. According to Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Hardeep Singh Puri, the percentage of crude imports coming from outside Hormuz has increased from 55% before the war to around 70%.
India imports crude from 40 countries, as opposed to 27 in 2006–2007. This structural diversification, which was developed through consistent policy over a number of years, “has given us options that other nations now find themselves without. ”
Puri claimed that refineries are running at full capacity utilization; in some instances, it’s even over 100 percent.