Barely two days after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the sanctions waiver for buying sanctioned Russian crude at sea won’t be renewed, Washington has now made a U-turn and extended the waiver by nearly a month. This decision by Washington is expected to help India continue buying Russian crude in large quantities amid the squeeze on supplies from West Asia. According to industry experts, the decision to extend the waiver likely came after pressure from countries buying Russian crude to partly offset the loss of Gulf barrels.There is some hope that the disruption in West Asian energy supplies might ease a bit in the coming days amid a fragile peace between the US and Iran and indications that vessel movements through the Strait of Hormuz could rise going forward. But even then, it would take weeks and possibly months for energy cargo movements through the maritime chokepoint to pick up significantly and on a sustained basis. Moreover, the damage to energy infrastructure in the region due to the war could keep production and supplies capped for much longer. For major oil importers, the hunt for more non-West Asian barrels is expected to continue for the foreseeable future.Had the Russian oil waiver not been extended, some adjustments and downward pressure on India’s oil imports from Russia were likely, even as Moscow was still expected to remain New Delhi’s largest source of crude oil in the coming months, according to industry insiders and experts. Without the waiver, Indian refiners wouldn’t have been able to take deliveries of Russian crude on sanctioned tankers or deal with Russian oil suppliers sanctioned by Washington, as that would have exposed them to the risk of attracting secondary sanctions from the US. India is the world’s third-largest consumer of crude oil and depends on imports to meet over 88% of its requirement.According to a General License issued by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Department of the Treasury, Russian oil and petroleum products loaded on tankers, including sanctioned vessels, on or before 12:01 eastern daylight time (9:31 am India time) on April 17 can be purchased and received by most countries till May 16. The earlier waiver—issued in March—had expired on April 11.“We will not be renewing the general license (sanctions waiver) on Russian oil, and we will not be renewing the general license on Iranian oil. That was oil that was on the water prior to March 11. So all that has been used,” Bessent had said at a White House briefing early Thursday India time. A similar sanctions waiver for Iranian oil is set to expire on April 19, and following the U-turn on the Russian waiver, it remains to be seen whether the US will do the same for Iranian oil as well.With global oil supplies hit due to the effective halt in vessel movements through the Strait of Hormuz amid the West Asia war, these waivers were aimed at allowing more barrels of oil to reach the international market, thereby easing the supply situation and exert downward pressure on spiralling oil prices. Experts saw these moves from Washington as part of Donald Trump administration’s effort to prevent a further and sustained spike in international oil prices—and the consequent rise in domestic fuel prices in the US—given the midterm elections later this year.Udit Misra writes | Graphs, Data, Perspectives | How Indian economy slid to 6th-largest in the world, with Japan, UK overtakingBut the Russian oil waiver attracted criticism from various sections in the US. Critics argued that it led to a windfall for Moscow, which would fund its war effort in Ukraine. Similar arguments were made against the waiver for oil from Iran, with whom the US was locked in battle in West Asia.Story continues below this adThe sanctions waiver for Russian crude was first issued specifically for India in the first week of March, and was later extended to all other countries.Move to benefit IndiaWith the sanctions waiver for Russian crude now extended, India—one of the top two destinations for Russian crude—is a clear beneficiary. The earlier waiver had facilitated a rapid ramp-up of import of Moscow’s oil by Indian refiners amid the major disruption in supplies from West Asia. Indian refiners were also able to secure some cargoes of Iranian oil, marking the first deliveries of Tehran’s crude to India in nearly seven years, although the volumes were insignificant when compared to imports of Russian crude.Around 2.5–2.7 million barrels per day (bpd) of India’s crude imports—accounting for around half of the country’s total oil imports—have transited the Strait of Hormuz in recent months; the longer-term average is around 40%. Most of that supply is effectively offline due to the war.While government sources maintained that India didn’t require a waiver from the US for buying oil from Russia, industry experts said that the waiver indeed helped. That is because Indian refiners were now able to take deliveries of Russian oil even on tankers sanctioned or blocked by the US, and could deal directly with sanctioned Russian companies like Rosneft and Lukoil. Moreover, it temporarily removed any friction between Washington and New Delhi over the latter’s hefty purchases of Moscow’s crude.Story continues below this adAlthough India was buying significant volumes of Russian crude even before the West Asia war began, the quantity had reduced notably over the past few months, evidently due to the US imposing sanctions on Russian oil majors Rosneft and Lukoil, and amid trade pact negotiations with Washington. The US made a meaningful reduction in India’s Russian oil imports a prerequisite for scrapping its 25% additional penal tariff on New Delhi.In February, India had imported just over 1 million bpd of Russian crude, almost half of the 2025 peak of over 2 million bpd. Even with the significant reduction in volumes, Russia was India’s largest source of crude in February, accounting for about fifth of its total oil imports.Then, with the war in West Asia raging and the sanctions waiver in place, India’s Russian oil imports nearly doubled to 2 million bpd in March, accounting for a whopping 44.4% of India’s total oil imports for the month even as imports from West Asia crashed, according to tanker data from commodity market analytics firm Kpler. In the first two weeks of April, India’s Russian oil imports averaged 1.6 million bpd.