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US Treasury Bessent: May unsanction Iranian oil on water in coming days

In an interview with Fox Business Network on Thursday, United States (US) Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the US is not attacking Iran's energy infrastructure and added that they have allowed Iranian oil to continue out of the Gulf, per Reuters.

Key takeaways

"The US may unsanction Iranian oil on water in coming days."

"There is plenty more the US can do on oil supply."

"The US could do another SPR release to keep price down."

"US Treasury is not intervening in futures markets."

"Treasury is intervening in markets by creating excess supply with oil that is on the water."

"We are not going to do a financial market intervention."

"I would expect Japan would be interested in securing oil supplies from Gulf."

US President Trump has excellent relationship with Japanese leader."

"I think Japan is going to supply the market with oil reserves."

"I believe US growth can be above 3% for 2026."

"We will get results of tariff investigations in July."

"Expectation is tariff regime would be under new authority and unchanged."

Market reaction

Crude oil prices edged slightly lower with the immediate reaction to these comments. At the time of press, the barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was last seen trading near $95.80, losing about 3.2% on the day.

Author

Eren Sengezer

As an economist at heart, Eren Sengezer specializes in the assessment of the short-term and long-term impacts of macroeconomic data, central bank policies and political developments on financial assets.

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