The U.S. eased the lid on Russian oil sanctions in March to keep the world supplied during the Iran war. As of Saturday, the lid is back on.
Treasury allowed the general license covering Russian seaborne oil to expire on May 16, ending a carve-out it first put in place in March and extended once in April.
The license only covered Russian oil already loaded onto tankers when the rules took effect, but it was big enough to matter for the global market.
India, the largest buyer of Russian seaborne crude, ran near-record purchases in April and May while the waiver was in place.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had already told reporters this week that the license would not be renewed, and no renewal had been posted as of Saturday afternoon in Washington.
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The administration's earlier moves to ease prices haven't done much.
U.S. gasoline is sitting near $4.50 a gallon, the highest since 2022, while Brent crude is trading around $109 a barrel after holding above $100 since the war started on February 28.
Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Elizabeth Warren urged the administration on Friday not to renew the waiver, arguing it sent oil revenue to Russia without bringing down U.S. fuel costs.
Bessent had previously said the carve-out was "narrowly tailored" and would not provide much help to Moscow.
China is also in the picture. Trump told reporters on his way back from Beijing that he and Xi Jinping discussed lifting U.S. sanctions on Chinese buyers of Iranian oil and that a decision would come soon.
The Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed, with shipping traffic largely blocked even after the U.S.-Israeli operation against Iran formally concluded on May 5.
Letting the Russian waiver expire pulls one of the few supply levers the U.S. had been pulling. Now the market gets to see what happens when it's gone.
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