Washington Puts End to Iran Oil Waivers

After threatening for nearly a year, the Trump administration is moving forward with policies aimed at eliminating Iran's oil exports.

The US will not issue new waivers -- technically referred to as Significant Reduction Exceptions (SREs) -- after the existing ones run out at the end of the day on May 1.

“We will no longer grant any exemptions. We're going to zero -- going to zero across the board,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday in Washington. The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have pledged to increase output to meet market demand, US officials said. Both countries were strong critics of the 2015 international agreement over Iran's nuclear program, from which US President Donald Trump announced the US would withdraw last May.

US officials have been saying for months that they had no interest in renewing the waivers issued to seven countries and Taiwan last November that allowed imports of Iranian crude and condensates to continue, but under limits. But many market observers expected that the administration would continue to issue at least some waivers, albeit at a lower rate of import. US President Donald Trump's public fretting over oil prices and the fact that the US issued so many waivers in November despite talk of “zero” Iranian barrels helped underpin those assumptions.

Read the full article and more in Energy Intelligence.