Russia's oil windfall
Russia has recouped billions after a temporary sanctions waiver let crude flow — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Moscow earned back $10 billion in just two weeks. The surge followed a waiver that unlocked Pacific and Arctic shipments and was the largest spike in over a year, Bloomberg reported — exposing fractures in Western policy as the U.S. leans toward energy stability while the EU has publicly ruled out easing its gas ban.
A 30‑day U.S. Treasury general licence authorises the delivery and sale of Russian crude and petroleum products that were loaded onto vessels on or before March 12 and remains in effect until 12:01 a.m. ET on April 11. (investinglive.com) Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent framed the move as a “narrowly tailored, short‑term” step to stabilise energy markets, saying the waiver applies only to cargoes already in transit. (cnbc.com) Bloomberg’s vessel‑tracking flagged roughly 30 tankers carrying about 19 million barrels of Russian crude and some 310,000 tonnes of refined products in Asian waters that became potentially available after the waiver. (bloomberg.com) Vessel and port‑agent data showed Russian seaborne exports climbed sharply in mid‑March, averaging about 3.44 million barrels per day in the four weeks to March 15 and with 37 tankers loading 27.79 million barrels in the week to March 15. (bloomberg.com) Global oil benchmarks swung violently in early March — Brent jumped as high as near $120 a barrel before retreating, and traded around $103 on March 17 as markets digested supply disruptions and emergency releases. (aljazeera.com) European and NATO allies publicly criticised the U.S. waiver as risking a weakening of sanctions pressure on Moscow, with Reuters reporting pushback from Germany and other Western partners. (sahmcapital.com)
