On 12 March 2026, the United States Department of the Treasury issued a 30-day authorization allowing the delivery and sale of Russian oil and petroleum products that had already been loaded onto vessels as of that date. The move aims to stabilize the global oil market.
“To increase the global reach of existing supply, U.S. Treasury is providing a temporary authorization to permit countries to purchase Russian oil currently stranded at sea. This narrowly tailored, short-term measure applies only to oil already in transit and will not provide significant financial benefit to the Russian government, which derives the majority of its energy revenue from taxes assessed at the point of extraction,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wrote on X.
According to the International Energy Agency, the military operation by the United States and Israel against Iran triggered the largest oil supply disruption in history. As a result of the fighting, the Strait of Hormuz has been blocked. Before the war, Gulf countries transported oil, petroleum products, and liquefied natural gas worth about $1.2 billion per day through the strait, according to the analytics company Kpler.
In the current situation, Russia stands to benefit the most, writes KyivPost. With rising global prices and growing demand for Russian energy resources, Russia could earn up to $150 million in additional oil export profits per day. In particular, China and India have significantly increased their purchases of Russian oil.
“The current high prices will help Russia to meet budget indicators this quarter and even start saving some money,” warned Borys Dodonov, Head of the Center for Energy Transformation and Sustainable Development at the Kyiv School of Economics, in a comment to KyivPost.