Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that to calm the markets, the United States was thinking about releasing more from the Strategic Oil Reserve, which the administration had failed to refill to capacity in the run-up to the war. But more strikingly, he has discussed suspending sanctions on Iranian oil already at sea - in an effort to free up roughly 140 million barrels - as another way to tamp down prices.
That would, of course, bring more revenue to Iran, but Mr. Bessent insisted that "we will be using the Iranian barrels against the Iranians to keep the price down for the next 10 or 14 days, as we continue this campaign."
Sean Casten
Omnivore