{"id":2706,"date":"2026-10-15T10:04:20","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T05:04:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=2706"},"modified":"2026-10-15T10:04:20","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T05:04:20","slug":"us-weighs-easing-sanctions-on-shadow-fleet-to-curb-record-shipping-costs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=2706","title":{"rendered":"US weighs easing sanctions on shadow fleet to curb record shipping costs"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The Trump administration is considering \u200beasing sanctions on so-called shadow fleet vessels that have transported oil and petroleum products from countries including Russia, Iran and \u200cVenezuela, in an effort to reduce record-high global freight rates, a US official said on Wednesday.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The discussions are happening days after President Donald Trump<\/a> temporarily lifted sanctions<\/a> on Russian diesel fuel, a move met with a torrent of criticism from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, European<\/a> countries and some of Trump\u2019s fellow Republicans<\/a> in the US Senate.<\/p>\n

Both Zelenskiy and the US senators called \u200bthat move a gift to Russian President Vladimir Putin<\/a> that would provide Russia with revenue to keep funding its war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

The new \u200btalks centre on the United States potentially allowing \u201clegal oil\u201d to flow on previously sanctioned vessels, the US official said. \u2060That means crude or petroleum products not sanctioned by Washington, rather than Russian and Iranian oil, which are under punitive measures.<\/p>\n

The goal is to \u200bget more refined products and crude out of the Gulf, the official said.<\/p>\n

US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a video to the World Petroleum \u200bCongress in Riyadh this week that the administration was talking about easing the sanctions on shadow fleet vessels in an effort to cut record freight rates that have cut into demand for US crude, according to Energy Aspects, a research group.<\/p>\n

Bits of the talk were broadcast on social media, but Reuters was not able to obtain the \u200bfull video or a transcript. The Department of Energy said it was not available.<\/p>\n

Companies seeking to use the sanctioned vessels would have to apply \u200bto the US Treasury Department to use the vessels, the official said.<\/p>\n

The Department of Energy said any move to relieve sanctions on the shadow fleet would not help \u200cRussia move oil or oil products. The Treasury Department referred questions to the Department of Energy.<\/p>\n

But Trump\u2019s push to move Russian diesel to global markets quickly could put pressure on the departments to allow shipment via the vessels.<\/p>\n

The White House did not respond immediately to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

High oil and fuel prices are a risk for Trump in the November 3 midterm elections<\/a> in which Republicans are hoping to maintain control of both chambers of Congress.<\/p>\n

He \u200blifted the sanctions on Russian diesel \u200bthrough April 7.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Record highs<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Tanker freight \u2060rates have soared to record highs<\/a> as the wars in Iran<\/a> and Ukraine<\/a> have stoked inflation and put US crude oil out of reach for Asian refiners, pushing them to seek alternatives from the Middle East and Latin America.<\/p>\n

Energy Aspects said \u200bin a note to clients that easing the sanctions on the shadow fleet would not greatly impact freight \u200brates but could \u2060allow more movement of oil in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

Lifting the sanctions on the tankers that are mostly old and not well maintained is \u201cunlikely to add meaningful mainstream fleet capacity overnight, especially as most tankers sanctioned over Russian or Venezuelan links have been actively trading over the past three months,\u201d it said in the \u2060note.<\/p>\n

Easing the \u200brestrictions \u201ccould make a small number of additional tankers available for certain (Strait of) Hormuz shuttle runs,\u201d \u200bin the waterway between Iran and Oman.<\/p>\n

Lifting the measures is unlikely to result in a broad easing of freight rates as ship insurers will still be bound by EU and UK \u200bregulations, maritime industry sources said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Trump administration is considering \u200beasing sanctions on so-called shadow fleet vessels that have transported oil and petroleum products from countries including Russia, Iran and \u200cVenezuela, in an effort to reduce record-high global freight rates, a US official said on Wednesday. The discussions are happening days after President Donald Trump temporarily lifted sanctions on Russian diesel fuel, a move met with a torrent of criticism from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, European countries and some of Trump\u2019s fellow Republicans in the US Senate. Both Zelenskiy and the US senators called \u200bthat…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2706\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}