US Lifts Restrictions on India Using Stranded Russian Crude to Stop Global Price Hike

3 min readMar 6, 2026 11:09 PM IST

The United States said it will allow “our friends in India” to take Russian oil already at sea near southern Asia, refine it, and release the supply into the market to ease pressure on global oil flows during the ongoing West Asia conflict.

The move follows a temporary 30-day waiver that permits Indian refiners to buy Russian crude currently stranded on ships, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.

“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,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a post on his X handle.

In an interview with ABC News Live, Wright said long-term oil supplies remain “abundant” but the market needs additional barrels in the short term.

“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.,” Wright said.

“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,” he added.

US says measure temporary

Bessent said the “deliberately short-term measure” applies only to oil already stranded at sea and will not deliver significant financial gains to Moscow.

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“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.

“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 added.

Earlier, US President Donald Trump had imposed a 25 per cent punitive tariff on India over its purchases of Russian oil, with the administration stating that the imports supported Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Last month, the US and India announced a framework for an interim trade agreement. Trump later issued an Executive Order removing the 25 per cent tariffs, citing India’s commitment to stop directly or indirectly importing energy from Russia and to increase purchases of US energy products.

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