According to him, Washington is finally abandoning the practice of temporary licenses.
As Bloomberg noted, we are talking about permits for the sale of part of the Russian and Iranian oil that has already been loaded onto tankers. The license for Russian oil has already expired, but for Iranian oil it will expire in the near future and there are no plans to continue it, the media writes.
The material also notes that due to the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz, world oil prices have risen by more than 30% since the start of the war in the Middle East, and futures are now hovering around $95 per barrel.
When journalists asked Minister Bessent how much money Russia was able to benefit from the temporary easing of sanctions, he noted that it was difficult to determine the exact amount, but approximately $2 billion.
“We don't know for sure. But again, imagine another scenario where the price of oil would have jumped to 150 – they would have made a lot more money pushing Russian barrels that were already at sea. They were going to be sold anyway. They would still have gone to China. We sent them to our allies,” he said.
In addition, Bloomberg reported that several Asian countries, including India and the Philippines, tried to persuade the US to continue the exemptions, but to no avail.
At the same time, the article notes that the possibility of some exceptions for individual countries or companies theoretically remains, although there are currently no official decisions on this matter.
