US considering easing sanctions on Russian tankers - FT

This will allow these ships to operate without any restrictions, the newspaper said

London, October 16. /TASS/. The Financial Times (FT) newspaper quoted sources as saying: The US government is considering the possibility of reducing restrictions on Russian and Iranian ships on the blacklist.

The proposed measures under consideration include the possible sale of sanctioned vessels to bona fide operators and the removal of restrictions, the sources said. This allows these ships to operate without any restrictions.

According to the article, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright raised the issue during the World Petroleum Congress (WPC Energy) held earlier this week in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia.

This newspaper quoted the spokesman of the US Treasury Department as saying that if buyers in good faith are interested in buying ships on the blacklist, the US Office of Foreign Assets Control is ready to evaluate license requests and lift sanctions on a case-by-case basis.

The Financial Times estimates that 13 to 19 percent of the world's oil tanker fleet is currently under US sanctions, citing energy consultancy firm Spects.

At the same time, this article shows that such measures are not able to reduce the price of diesel fuel, because these measures are mainly due to the difficult situation in the Middle East, not because of the lack of ships to transport the fuel.