Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent identified Iranian oil stockpiles on tankers as a key tool for blunting Iran’s economic offensive through the Strait of Hormuz, he revealed Thursday. Bessent said the administration is considering temporarily lifting sanctions on approximately 140 million barrels of Iranian crude in international waters, using these stockpiles to offset the supply shortfall and price surge created by Iran’s own blockade.
Iran’s economic offensive through the Hormuz blockade has been highly effective, removing between 10 and 14 million barrels of daily supply from global markets for close to two weeks and driving crude prices above $100 per barrel. The offensive has created economic hardship for oil-importing nations and has forced the administration to develop countermeasures of matching scale.
Bessent said blunting the economic offensive requires deploying the approximately 140 million barrels of Iranian crude on tankers, originally heading toward China, as a counter-supply measure. A targeted temporary waiver could redirect this oil to global buyers, providing roughly two weeks of supply relief during the US campaign against the blockade.
The Treasury has previously deployed comparable countermeasures, including a waiver for Russian oil that redirected approximately 130 million barrels to world supply. An additional unilateral US Strategic Petroleum Reserve release beyond the G7’s 400 million barrel commitment is also being planned, while the administration maintains its firm policy against financial market intervention.
National security and compliance experts questioned the effectiveness of blunting one aspect of Iran’s offensive while enabling another. They warned that using Iranian oil stockpiles to counter the price pressure from the blockade would simultaneously provide the Iranian regime with oil revenues to sustain and potentially expand its military offensive and proxy operations. Critics argued that truly blunting Iran’s economic offensive requires measures that weaken rather than financially enable the regime.