U.S. Treasury Secretary Bensinger: Lifting Partial Sanctions on Iranian Oil

Iran - The U.S. is considering easing some of its sanctions on Iranian oil. Treasury Secretary Scott Bensinger told Fox Business Network, "In the coming days, we may lift sanctions on Iranian oil currently being transported at sea."

The U.S. Treasury Secretary said the purpose of this move was to "use Iranian oil to lower oil prices [...] while we continue this military operation." He did not specify how long this relaxation of sanctions would last.

However, he cited last week's announcement of a temporary relaxation of sanctions on Russian oil as an example. According to Washington's new rules, Russia can sell its oil stored at sea under Putin's leadership until early April. This move aims to inject millions of barrels of oil into markets that are in urgent need of oil: the Middle East war has taken away most of the region's usual oil and gas exports.

The White House also ruled out the possibility of restricting the export of oil produced domestically in the United States.

AFP interviewed Andy Lipow, an analyst at Lipow Oil Associates, who said, "This shows that the government is willing to pay a high price to ease the burden on consumers due to high oil prices."

The expert added, "Clearly, if the sanctions are lifted, Iran could possibly sell oil to some customers in Europe from decades ago." Scott Bensinger confirmed that about 140 million barrels of Iranian oil are currently stuck at sea. According to the State Department, this is enough to compensate for a loss of "ten to two weeks" in the market.

Andy Lipow, an analyst, pointed out, "From a political perspective, this seems very contradictory, because it looks like we are allowing Iran to sell oil, even though we are at war with the country."

Philip Lako of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) noted that given global oil demand exceeds 100 million barrels per day, this relaxation of restrictions would only release the equivalent of 1.5 days of international supply. He told AFP, "If they do this to change U.S. oil prices, it's impossible."

On Tuesday, the U.S. government announced a suspension of a long-standing maritime transport law to promote oil trade and further relax economic sanctions on Venezuela. Venezuela has abundant oil and gas reserves. The U.S. government also pledged to gradually supply 172 million barrels of oil to the market, which is part of a large-scale initiative launched by the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Source: rfi

Original: toutiao.com/article/1860132823284736/

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