CNN: US considers easing Iran sanctions amid soaring oil prices

The Trump administration is making an urgent push to secure every available barrel of oil as the war with Iran continues to push global prices higher, even if it means temporarily lifting sanctions on the very country it is fighting, CNN reports.

Three weeks into the conflict, officials privately estimate that the oil price surge could last for months as fighting intensifies and passage through the Strait of Hormuz remains nearly impossible.

“This is the biggest disruption to the oil markets that you can imagine,” said Neelesh Nerurkar, a former senior Trump Energy Department official.

“The shortfall is so large that the measures available are dwarfed by how much oil is not reaching the market.”

The administration has already released hundreds of millions of barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, eased some sanctions on Russian oil, and accelerated domestic crude flows, but Brent crude hit $112 a barrel on Friday (March 21), with US gas prices approaching $4 per gallon.

Officials are now considering temporarily removing sanctions on Iranian oil currently at sea. “Iran was going to sell those barrels anyway,” said one of the people familiar with the internal discussions. “Instead of going to China, we make it sellable to Thailand or Vietnam.”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent described the move as “using the Iranian barrels against Tehran to keep the price down as we continue Operation Epic Fury.” US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz added that the measure is “very temporary” to “defeat the Iranian strategy of driving energy prices so high.”

Experts warn that the additional supply will offer only limited relief. Gregory Brew, a senior analyst at Eurasia Group, said, “If they pursue this strategy and allow buyers to buy off this oil on the water, it’ll go quickly. Then we’ll be faced with the interesting proposal of dropping sanctions on Iranian oil generally.”

The administration continues to weigh other measures, including temporarily waiving environmental regulations on certain summer gasoline blends, though no decisions have been made.

“The nuance here is there isn’t nuance,” said Landon Derentz, a former national security and energy official. “Nobody else has a bright idea.”

By Aghakazim Guliyev