US to End Waiver Allowing Iranian Oil Sales as Sanctions Tighten

Washington is escalating pressure on Tehran by ending a key oil waiver and combining financial sanctions with a blockade targeting export lifelines

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent addresses journalists in Paris on March 16, 2026. Ludovic Marin / AFP via Getty Images

The United States will not renew a 30-day sanctions waiver that has allowed Iranian oil stranded at sea to be sold on global markets, the U.S. Department of the Treasury said.

The U.S. Treasury said in an April 14 post on X that it is moving aggressively to maintain “maximum pressure” on Iran under what it described as its “Economic Fury” campaign.

“Financial institutions should be on notice that the department is leveraging the full range of available tools and authorities and is prepared to deploy secondary sanctions against foreign financial institutions that continue to support Iran’s activities,” the department said.

“The short-term authorization permitting the sale of Iranian oil already stranded at sea is set to expire in a few days and will not be renewed.”

The waiver stems from a March 20 decision by the Treasury to temporarily ease restrictions on certain Iranian oil cargoes already loaded onto vessels.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said at the time that the United States had issued a general license authorizing the delivery and sale of Iranian crude oil and petroleum products that had already been loaded onto ships as of that date.

The license, issued through the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, was set to remain in force until April 19.

At the time, Bessent said the measure was intended “to maximize the flow of energy to the world” and help keep oil prices down amid the ongoing conflict involving Iran.

The waiver allowed roughly 140 million barrels of Iranian crude and petroleum products held in floating storage to reach buyers, which Bessent said would also work against Tehran to “keep the price down.”

Its expiration is now expected to sharply curtail Iran’s ability to move oil, adding to existing restrictions on exports and shipping.

Since April 13 at 10 a.m. ET, U.S. Central Command has been enforcing a blockade “impartially against vessels of all nations entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas, including all Iranian ports on the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman.”

“U.S. forces are supporting freedom of navigation for vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz to and from non-Iranian ports,” U.S. Central Command said.

U.S. Central Command Commander Adm. Brad Cooper speaks at a news conference at CENTCOM headquarters in MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla., on March 5, 2024. TJ Muscaro/The Epoch Times

U.S. Central Command Commander Adm. Brad Cooper said in a April 15 post on X that U.S. forces maintain “maritime superiority in the Middle East.”

Cooper added that in less than 36 hours since the blockade was implemented, U.S. forces have completely halted economic trade going into and out of Iran by sea, adding that about 90 percent of the Iranian economy depends on maritime trade.

In an April 14 report, the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said the decision not to renew the waiver “will further constrain Iran’s ability to export oil” alongside the expanding U.S. blockade.

Bessent was asked on April 14 about Chinese tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz after Iran said it would collect a toll as a precondition to reopen the waterway.

“Those ships aren’t going to be allowed out anymore,” Bessent told a group of reporters on the sidelines of the IMF World Bank meetings. “So they’re [China] not going to be able to get their oil.”

When asked what his message to those paying the tolls would be, he said, “You’re not going to pass.” And if a country pays the toll, “they are in violation of U.S. sanctions, and that never ends well,” he added.

An oil facility at Khark Island, Iran, on the shore of the Gulf, on March 12, 2017. Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images

According to a March 30 report by the Atlantic Council, China is Iran’s largest oil customer, purchasing roughly 80 percent of Iran’s seaborne exports.

It said that payments are increasingly handled in yuan instead of dollars to “reduce exposure to US oversight while also advancing the internationalization of China’s renminbi.”

The Treasury has also stepped up pressure on foreign financial institutions.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal on April 14, Bessent said the department is contacting banks, including in China, to warn that transactions involving Iranian oil could trigger sanctions.

“We are reaching out to banks, including Chinese banks, to remind them that any Iranian goods and the purchases thereof are forbidden and that the dollars would be sanctioned,” he said, adding that the United States is prepared to impose “secondary sanctions” if necessary.

Aldgra Fredly, Evgenia Filimianova, and Jack Phillips contributed to this report.