Why US 'permitted' India to buy Russian oil amid West Asia conflict?

Calling Indians 'good actors' for stopping Russian oil purchase when asked by the US, Bessent said the Treasury (Department) agreed to let India start buying Russian oil that was already on the water.

A day after "permitting" India to buy Russian oil amid the raging US-Israel and Iran conflict, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent explained why the Trump govt took the decision.

In an interview to Fox Business on Friday, Bessent said the US has given "permission" to India to buy Russian oil that is on ships already floating on waterways with a view to easing supplies around the world amid the West Asia conflict.

Calling Indians "good actors" for stopping Russian oil purchase when asked by the US, Bessent said, "The world is very well supplied in oil. Yesterday, the Treasury (Department) agreed to let our allies in India start buying Russian oil that was already on the water."

"The Indians had been very good actors. We had asked them to stop buying sanctioned Russian oil this fall. They did. They were going to substitute it with US oil. But to ease the temporary gap of oil around the world, we have given them permission to accept the Russian oil. We may unsanction other Russian oil," he said.

Bessent added that there are hundreds of millions of sanctioned barrels of sanctioned crude on the water, and in essence, "by unsanctioning them, Treasury can create supply. And we are looking at that. We are going to keep a cadence of announcing measures to bring relief to the market during this conflict."

Several other Trump administration officials have also been saying that the US has now allowed India to buy Russian oil, months after President Donald Trump had imposed 25 per cent punitive tariffs on Delhi for its purchases of oil from Moscow.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a post on X Friday that the United States is "allowing our friends in India" to take the Russian oil already on ships around Southern Asia, refine it and move the stocks into the market quickly in order to ensure a flowing supply and ease pressure amid the ongoing US-Israel war against Iran.

"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 an interview to ABC News Live, Wright said that long-term oil supplies are "abundant" and there are no worries regarding that, but in the short term, there is a need to get oil on the market.

"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.

"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," Wright said.

"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.

On Thursday, amid the escalating conflict with Iran, the US said it was issuing a temporary 30-day waiver to allow Indian refiners to purchase Russian oil.

"President Trump's energy agenda has resulted in oil and gas production reaching the highest levels ever recorded. To enable oil to keep flowing into the global market, the Treasury Department is issuing a temporary 30-day waiver to allow Indian refiners to purchase Russian oil," Bessent had said.

He said this "deliberately short-term measure" will not provide significant financial benefit to the Russian government, as it only authorises transactions involving oil already stranded at sea.

"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.

Trump had imposed the 25 per cent punitive tariffs on India for buying Russian oil, with the administration asserting that Delhi's purchases were helping fuel Russia's war machine against Ukraine.

Last month, the US and India announced that they had reached a framework for an Interim Agreement on trade, and Trump had issued an Executive Order removing the 25 per cent punitive tariffs on India, noting the commitment by New Delhi to stop directly or indirectly importing energy from Moscow and purchasing American energy products.

A statement from the Department of Treasury titled 'Authorizing the Delivery and Sale of Crude Oil and Petroleum Products of Russian Federation Origin Loaded on Vessels as of March 5, 2026 to India' said that "all transactions prohibited… that are ordinarily incident and necessary to the sale, delivery, or offloading of crude oil or petroleum products of Russian Federation origin loaded on any vessel, including vessels blocked under the above listed authorities, on or before 12:01 a.m. eastern standard time, March 5, 2026 are authorized through 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time, April 4, 2026, provided that the delivery or offloading of such crude oil or petroleum products occurs at a port" in India and the purchaser of such crude oil or petroleum products is an entity organized under the laws of India.

The general license issued by the Treasury Department said it does not authorise any other transactions or activities prohibited by any other Executive order, including any transaction or activity involving Iran, the Government of Iran, or Iranian-origin goods or services that is prohibited by the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations.

(With PTI inputs)