The U.S. Treasury Department has issued a second temporary authorization allowing buyers to take delivery of Russian oil cargoes already at sea, broadening a waiver granted last week to India alone as Washington seeks to ease pressure on crude prices during the ongoing conflict in Iran.

The new measure, published late Thursday by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), expands the India-specific waiver issued last week and applies to oil loaded to oil tankers before March 12. About 30 vessels in Asian waters are carrying Russian crude and petroleum products that could potentially be purchased under the waiver, according to Bloomberg ship-tracking data. 

Those ships are signaling “for orders,” indicating they do not yet have a clear destination, or are headed toward Singapore or Malaysia, where tankers often wait while cargoes are marketed and sold, according to the news agency, which also noted that some Russian crude currently at sea is unlikely to be sold within the one-month timeframe granted under the OFAC license. 

Robert Rennie, head of commodity research at Westpac Banking Corp., told the news outlet that the added supply would help only at the margins. He estimated that, of the 125 million to 150 million barrels of Russian crude currently on the water, about a third is off the coast of China and likely bound for storage, while 30-million to 40-million barrels is in India and likely to be consumed there. The remainder is in the Mediterranean and Atlantic, he said in the report. 

The OFAC waiver follows media reports that the Kremlin is currently providing Iran with satellite imagery and drone-targeting tactics to better target American forces in the region. 

“No one will be surprised to believe that Putin’s hidden hand is behind some of the Iranian tactics and potentially some of their capabilities as well,” UK Defence Secretary John Healey said Thursday in remarks cited by Bloomberg. 

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