The Trump administration has extended for about a month a sanctions exemption covering some Russian oil already at sea, reversing course just two days after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the United States would not renew the waiver, The New York Times reported.

The renewed license will remain in effect until May 16 and supersedes an earlier waiver that expired on April 11. The administration has eased restrictions on Russian oil exports since war in the Middle East began rattling energy markets in March, seeking to lower oil prices by allowing countries to legally buy hundreds of millions of barrels of crude that had previously been blacklisted by the United States.

Bessent said at a White House briefing on Wednesday that Washington would not renew the exemption for Russian oil stranded at sea, and also would not extend a similar waiver for Iranian oil due to expire on Sunday, the Times reported. “That was oil that was on the water prior to March 11,” Bessent said, according to the report. “So all of that has been used.”

The last-minute extension came as uncertainty persisted over the Strait of Hormuz, the report said. Iran reopened the waterway to commercial shipping earlier on Friday, only to close it again less than 24 hours later, with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps saying the strait would remain shut until the United States ended its blockade of Iranian ports, according to the Times.

A Treasury spokeswoman said on Saturday that, “as negotiations accelerate, Treasury wants to ensure all oil is available to those who need it,” the newspaper reported.

Read more at The New York Times