Financial Times: Trump is considering easing restrictions against the "shadow fleet" of Russia and Iran / This action could include allowing the sale of blacklisted ships to legal buyers and lifting sanctions that currently prevent these tankers from operating freely / This action is Trump's attempt to curb fuel prices ahead of the midterm elections.

The United States is considering measures to ease restrictions against shadow fleet tankers linked to Russia and Iran; An action that takes place in the context of Washington's efforts to lower the skyrocketing price of diesel before the mid-term elections in November.

The Financial Times wrote: Russian oil tanker "DF Peak" of the shadow fleet. Analysts say the easing of sanctions on oil tankers will have only a limited effect on fuel prices.

According to "Select" report; This article continues: The United States is considering measures to ease restrictions against shadow fleet tankers linked to Russia and Iran; An action that takes place in the context of Washington's efforts to lower the skyrocketing price of diesel before the mid-term elections in November.

Those measures could include allowing blacklisted vessels to be sold to legitimate operators and lifting sanctions that currently prevent the tankers from operating freely, people familiar with the matter told the Financial Times.

This controversial move to lift the embargo on oil tankers has been proposed with the aim of increasing the sea transportation capacity of oil and refined fuels and reducing sea transportation rates that have reached unprecedented levels and increased fuel costs even more. US Energy Secretary Chris Wright raised the issue earlier this week at the World Petroleum Conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

A U.S. Treasury Department official said the department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) may review the sale of shadow fleet vessels to "legitimate buyers" and allow them to operate on the global market "on a case-by-case basis."

This action is the latest attempt by the Donald Trump administration to curb fuel prices before the mid-term elections; An election that will determine the task of controlling the US Congress. Polls show that rising inflation caused by the war with Iran has turned many voters away from Trump's Republican Party.

This decision also represents a sudden turn in US policy in favor of Moscow; It is in the context that Washington is seeking to release frozen Russian government assets and has apparently restricted Ukraine's access to Starlink satellites, which are vital for the country's defense in the war with Russia.

Trump announced last week that he will temporarily lift sanctions on Russian diesel. This decision was criticized by America's European allies and a bipartisan group of US senators who called it "a gift to our enemy and a betrayal of our allies".

According to three people present at the Riyadh meeting, Wright said in a video message to the meeting on Monday that the shortage of tankers is one of the main bottlenecks that increases the rates of sea transportation in the world markets, and lifting the embargo on ships can reduce this pressure to some extent.

Bob McNally, the former energy advisor to George W. Bush and the head of the consulting company "Rapidan Energy", who was present at this meeting, said: "The government is turning over every stone to lower fuel prices in any way possible before the election; Even if these policies only have a marginal effect."

"If legitimate buyers are interested in purchasing Shadow Fleet vessels and want to rehabilitate them for legitimate use in the global commercial shipping industry, OFEC may allow these transactions and lift sanctions on these vessels on a case-by-case basis," said the US Treasury Department official.

The official added: "Such lifting of sanctions will not benefit the shadow fleet, but will remove these ships from the shadow fleet to be used in the legal global trade." He also emphasized that before canceling the sanctions of any institution or group, Ofek conducts a comprehensive process to review its case.

Jeremy Panner, a partner at Hughes Hubbard law firm in Washington, said the U.S. government could potentially avoid the unsavory image of new Russia-linked licenses by facilitating the purchase of sanctioned oil tankers belonging to the shadow fleet.

The White House and the US Department of Energy did not respond to requests for comment.

This move comes as data released this week showed that US consumer inflation jumped to 3.7% in September; The increase that has affected the entire economy following the return of fuel price growth.

The White House is rapidly trying to curb these price increases. Washington has asked its allies to increase the supply of diesel to the market and has threatened to impose a fuel export ban. Trump has also signed an executive order allowing the use of tax-free red diesel on public roads.

However, the price of diesel remains at a high level. The average price of this fuel in American stations reached $6.31 per gallon on Thursday; A figure that is slightly lower than the record of $6.53 recorded in recent weeks.

The International Energy Agency also warned this week that the global diesel shortage will continue until mid-2027.

Daniel Yergin, vice president of S&P Global, said that the focus of policy makers, at least for the time being, has shifted from crude oil to the lack of tankers as one of the main constraints on the supply of these products.

However, analysts believe that the easing of sanctions on oil tankers will have only a limited impact on fuel prices.

According to the data of the consulting company "Energy Aspects", between 13 and 19 percent of the world's oil tanker fleet is under US sanctions. However, the company said the ships' age and poor condition would limit the benefits from the sanctions relief.

"Therefore, lifting the embargo on ships that are mostly old and likely not properly maintained is unlikely to add significant capacity to the core shipping fleet in the near term," the company wrote in a report.

"Furthermore, most of the tankers that have been sanctioned due to their links to Russia or Venezuela have continued to trade over the past three months," the report added.

The "Kepler" research group also announced that it expects this action to have practically no effect on the current crisis of oil tankers; Because fuel price hikes are largely due to rising war risks in the Middle East, not simply a shortage of transport ships.

However, the US government's willingness to lift sanctions on Russian fuel and the shadow tankers that the country uses to transport crude oil and other petroleum products has worried politicians in the US and Europe.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Wednesday criticized Trump's plan to buy diesel from Russia, calling it a "very risky choice" that would undermine international pressure on Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine.