The US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said on Friday that his government was considering lifting sanctions on more Russian oil, a day after it temporarily authorised India to buy from Moscow as global oil prices surged.

The US-Israel war on Iran and Tehran’s retaliatory attacks across the Gulf region have upended the world’s energy and transport sectors, virtually halting activity in the strait of Hormuz.

The price of crude oil soared 8.5% on Friday and was up nearly 30% for the week after the US president, Donald Trump, said that only the “unconditional surrender” of Iran would end the Middle East war.

“We may unsanction other Russian oil,” Bessent told Fox Business on Friday.

“There are hundreds of millions of barrels of sanctioned crude on the water. And in essence, by unsanctioning them, Treasury can create a supply.”

Washington has insisted that the new measures are not aimed at easing restrictions on Moscow, imposed over its conduct in negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, but instead only affect supplies already in transit.

“We’re going to keep a cadence of announcing measures to bring relief to the market during this conflict,” Bessent said, with high oil prices a pain point both domestically and for international markets.

Kremlin economic adviser Kirill Dmitriev said he was discussing the issue with the United States, posting on X that “Western sanctions have proven detrimental to the world economy”.

On Thursday, the US government temporarily eased economic sanctions to allow Russian oil currently stranded at sea to be sold to India.

It said the transactions, including from vessels blocked by various sanctions regimes, are authorised through the end of the day on 3 April 2026.