America just considered easing sanctions on tankers carrying Russian oil

America is thinking about going easy on the ships that have been moving Russian and Iranian oil around the world.

A US official told Reuters a few hours ago what's actually being discussed.

The plan is to let what they're calling legal oil move on ships that are currently sanctioned.

So what does that mean? Oil that isn't banned itself, carried on tankers that are banned.

Russian oil and Iranian oil stay off limits either way, at least on paper.

But any company that wants to use one of these ships still has to ask the US Treasury first.

Chris Wright is America's Energy Secretary. He said the quiet part out loud this week.

He told the World Petroleum Congress in Riyadh that the government is discussing easing these sanctions. Why? To bring down freight rates that have hit record highs.

A research group called Energy Aspects says those high rates are hurting demand for American oil.

Chris Wright also said something else worth knowing. Oil flowing through the Strait of Hormuz is back up to 80 to 90 per cent of what it was before the conflict.

Refined fuel flowing through the same strait is still only at 25 to 35 per cent.

He said fewer Iranian, Venezuelan and Russian ships using the shadow fleet has freed up a lot of tankers. Some of them, he said, should come back into normal shipping, with sanctions lifted where possible.

This isn't a one-off idea someone floated. It's part of something bigger.

Six days ago, Donald Trump temporarily lifted sanctions on Russian diesel fuel, through 7 April.

A few days before that, Trump announced a deal with Vladimir Putin, Russia's President. Russia agreed to send over 300,000 tonnes of diesel to the US and world markets straight away.

Then 500,000 more tonnes in November. Then a million tonnes after that. Then up to three million more, depending on Russia's refineries.

The US Treasury's sanctions office issued a licence allowing that diesel to reach world markets right after Trump's announcement.

That move got criticised fast. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine's President, European governments and some Republican US senators all called it out.

They said it was a gift to Vladimir Putin. Money to keep funding his war in Ukraine.

And here's the part that makes this stranger. Only a month before that, Trump signed a sweeping sanctions law named after Lindsey Graham, built to squeeze Russia and Iran harder.

That law expanded sanctions on Russian officials, banks and shadow fleet tankers. It also lets Trump hit the top five buyers of Russian oil and gas with tariffs up to 100 per cent.