WASHINGTON, March 6. /TASS/. US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent confirmed reports that his authority had issued a 30-day license to India to buy Russian oil carried by tankers currently at sea.
"To enable oil to keep flowing into the global market, the Treasury Department is issuing a temporary 30-day waiver to allow Indian refiners to purchase Russian oil," he wrote on the X social network.
"This deliberately short-term measure will not provide significant financial benefit to the Russian government as it only authorizes transactions involving oil already stranded at sea," he continued.
The US official added that the US anticipated that New Delhi will ramp up its purchases of US oil.
The general license, published by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) also permits deals involving Russian oil derivatives and allows buying products that were loaded on any vessels before or on March 5.
It permits "offloading of crude oil or petroleum products of Russian Federation origin loaded on any vessel, including vessels blocked under the above listed authorities." This applies to products loaded on tankers before 12:01 a.m. eastern standard time (5:00 p.m. GMT), March 5. Such operations are allowed until April 4.