By allowing Iranian cargo currently on water – he put the figure at about 140 million barrels – to reach buyers, US hopes to ease supply tightness and temper prices, if only for 10 to 14 days.
The move could also redirect flows away from China, forcing it to pay closer to market rates, while making crude available to other Asian consumers, including India, Japan and Malaysia, Bessent said. (China is the main buyer of oil from Iran.)
India could sit at the centre of this recalibration.
More than 60% of its crude imports come from the Gulf – primarily Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE. Half of these imports travel through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow Gulf chokepoint now effectively closed by the conflict.
“India could emerge as a key demand centre to watch, alongside Chinese buyers (state-owned companies and private refiners) and other Asian countries,” according to Sumit Ritolia, a refinery and oil markets analyst at maritime intelligence firm Kpler.
Historically, India was a major buyer of Iranian crude, with imports peaking at around 11.5% of its total intake before sanctions tightened in 2018.
Iranian Light and Heavy grades of crude oil were well suited to Indian refineries and often came with favourable pricing and payment terms.
Those flows halted in 2019, replaced first by Middle Eastern and American crude, and later by deeply discounted Russian barrels after the Ukraine war reshaped global trade.
