The United States has said its decision to grant India a temporary waiver to purchase certain Russian oil supplies is a short-term move aimed at stabilising global crude prices amid supply disruptions linked to tensions in the Middle East.US energy secretary Chris Wright said the measure is intended to quickly bring oil stored in floating reserves into the global market and ease immediate supply constraints.

Speaking to ABC News Live, Wright said large volumes of Russian crude are currently stored in tankers around southern Asia and that Washington had encouraged India to buy these cargoes.“We need to get oil on the market in the short term. In the long term, supplies are abundant. There’s no worry there,” Wright said, adding that the temporary step was necessary as oil prices were rising due to constraints in shipments passing through the Strait of Hormuz.“As oil gets bid up a little bit because of those constraints coming out of the Straits of Hormuz, we’re taking a short-term action to say all this floating Russian oil storage that’s around southern Asia,” he said.Wright said the US had asked India to absorb those cargoes. “We’ve reached out to our friends in India and said, ‘Buy that oil. Bring it into your refineries.’ That pulls stored oil immediately into Indian refineries and releases the pressure on other refineries around the world,” he added.He stressed that the waiver does not represent a shift in Washington’s stance toward Moscow. “This is no change in policy towards Russia. This is a very brief change in policy just to keep oil prices down a little bit better than we could otherwise,” Wright said.Earlier in the day, US treasury secretary Scott Bessent announced a 30-day waiver allowing Indian refiners to purchase Russian oil cargoes stranded 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,” Bessent said in a post on X.

Indian refiners step up purchases

Following the waiver, Indian refiners have begun purchasing large volumes of Russian oil floating in Asian waters, reported news agency PTI, citing sources.The companies have snapped up around 20 million barrels of crude, mostly from non-sanctioned entities, though they are seeking legal clarity on whether the exemption also allows purchases from sanctioned firms.The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has issued a licence permitting the delivery and offloading of Russian crude loaded on vessels before March 5, 2026, with transactions allowed until April 4, 2026.The move comes as the widening West Asia conflict disrupts energy shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, through which nearly 40–50 per cent of India’s crude imports typically pass.India, which holds reserves covering roughly 25 days of crude demand, has turned to Russian cargoes at sea to ensure domestic fuel supplies remain stable. Indian refiners had already been importing about one million barrels of Russian oil per day in recent months.Industry estimates cited by PTI suggest around 15 million barrels of Russian crude are currently floating in the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, while additional cargoes are waiting near Singapore and other routes that could reach Indian ports within weeks.Analysts say the waiver provides short-term relief for India’s energy security, though competition from other buyers, particularly China, may limit the volume of additional Russian oil available.