The Treasury Department on Friday extended a sanctions waiver allowing India and other countries to keep buying Russian oil already loaded on tankers, reversing course just 48 hours after Secretary Scott Bessent publicly ruled out any renewal.

The new general license, No. 134B, took effect immediately and runs through May 16. It replaces an earlier waiver that expired April 11 and applies only to Russian crude and petroleum products sitting on vessels as of Friday. Transactions involving Iran, Cuba, North Korea, and parts of Ukraine remain off-limits.

A Treasury spokesperson framed the move as a market stabilizer tied to the ongoing diplomatic push with Tehran. "As negotiations accelerate, Treasury wants to ensure oil is available to those who need it," the spokesperson said.

The reversal lands in the middle of a punishing stretch for global energy markets. The U.S.-Israeli war on Iran enters its eighth week Saturday, and the International Energy Agency has already described it as the worst global energy supply disruption on record.

A sharp reversal after pressure from abroad

Bessent was blunt on Wednesday. "We will not be renewing the general license on Russian oil and Iranian oil. That was oil that was on the water prior to March 11th. All that has been used," he told reporters at a White House briefing.

Two days later, the license was back on Treasury's website in nearly identical form.

The pressure on Washington came from multiple directions at once. Asian buyers feeling the brunt of the energy shock leaned on the administration for relief. So did diplomats gathering in Washington this week for the Group of 20, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund meetings. A U.S. source said partner countries used the sidelines of those sessions to press for the extension.

India, one of the largest buyers of Russian crude, was directly engaged in the negotiations. President Trump raised oil with Prime Minister Narendra Modi by phone earlier this week, and the issue came up during the Indian foreign secretary's recent visit to Washington.

What it means for India and the global crude flow

India has become a central customer for Russian oil since Moscow invaded Ukraine in 2022. The country imported nearly 2 million barrels a day of Russian crude in 2024, spending roughly $44 billion, and its appetite has only grown during the Iran war.

Purchases more than tripled month-over-month in March, climbing to $5.8 billion from $1.54 billion in February, according to data from the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air. New Delhi also imported $371 million in Russian coal and $196 million in refined petroleum products during the same period.

Russia has signaled it intends to push even more volume toward the subcontinent. Denis Alipov, Moscow's ambassador in New Delhi, said this week that Russia is prepared to deliver crude, LPG, and LNG to India "in whatever volumes" the country requires.

The previous license generated meaningful flow. Bessent said last month that the comparable waiver on Iranian oil, issued March 20, had released roughly 140 million barrels into global markets. Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev put the first Russian waiver at about 100 million barrels freed — close to a full day of global output.

Markets fall, politics harden

Oil fell hard on Friday, with Brent dropping roughly 9 percent to just under $90 per barrel after Iran declared the Strait of Hormuz reopened to commercial shipping. European natural gas slid by as much as 10 percent, settling near €39 per megawatt-hour. Brent had traded near $120 in March, the highest level since the weeks after Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The price relief is politically useful for Trump. Fuel costs are among the more visible threats to Republicans heading into the November midterms, and administration officials have made clear that keeping pump prices in check is a priority.

The reaction on Capitol Hill was mixed. Senate Democrats led by Chuck Schumer, Elizabeth Warren, and Jeanne Shaheen called the renewal a "180-degree reversal" and described it as "shameful" in a joint statement, arguing it props up Russia's war economy. Some Republicans had also criticized the earlier round of waivers as a gift to Moscow at a moment when Ukraine remains under attack.

In Brussels, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has said publicly that this is not the moment to relax sanctions on Russia.

Dmitriev, for his part, welcomed the extension on social media, writing that "US-Russian economic and energy cooperation will continue."

A sanctions regime under strain

The mechanics of the waiver are narrow on paper. It applies only to cargoes already at sea, with a defined window to finish delivery and clear insurance, shipping, and port services. That framing is consistent with how both the current and previous administrations have used similar carve-outs to avoid sudden supply shocks.

Analysts watching the policy say the repeated issuance of waivers is beginning to tell a larger story about the sanctions architecture itself.

"The conflict has done lasting damage to global energy markets, and the tools available to stabilize them are nearly exhausted," said Brett Erickson, a sanctions expert at Obsidian Risk Advisors, who expects further waivers to follow.

The International Monetary Fund has already baked some of that into its numbers. On April 14, the fund upgraded Russia's 2026 growth outlook by 0.3 percentage points, to 1.1 percent. Alfred Kammer, who heads the IMF's European Department, said the revision was driven almost entirely by higher oil and gas prices.

More than 80 oil and gas facilities across the Middle East have been damaged since the war began February 28. Iran, which temporarily reopened the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, has warned it could shut the waterway again if the U.S. Navy blockade of Iranian ports remains in place.

For now, the new license gives traders, insurers, and buyers from New Delhi to Tokyo a one-month legal path to clear Russian cargoes already on the water. Whether the waiver ends on May 16 — or gets renewed yet again — is likely to depend on where the Iran talks stand and how quickly tanker traffic through Hormuz actually returns to anything close to pre-war volumes.