By Katharine Jackson and Curtis Williams
WASHINGTON, March 8 (Reuters) – Trump administration officials on Sunday defended a decision to temporarily lift some sanctions on Russian oil and predicted that a sharp increase in gasoline prices resulting from the Iran war would last only weeks.
Appearing on multiple TV talk shows, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz said a waiver issued last week to allow Indian purchases of Russian oil would alleviate pressure on the global market.
“It’s a 30-day pause to allow, which is just kind of common sense, to allow the millions and millions of barrels of oil that are sitting out on ships to go to Indian refineries,” Waltz said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Wright told CNN’s “State of the Union” that the waiver can help “tamp this fear of shortage of oil, tamp the price spikes and the concerns we see in the marketplace.”
With the war now in its second week and no end in sight, Americans are grappling with higher prices at the pump, a new complicating factor for the U.S. economy, which unexpectedly lost 92,000 jobs in February.
As of Friday, the national average price for regular gasoline stood at $3.32 a gallon, up 11% from the previous week and the highest since September 2024, according to data from the motorists group AAA. Diesel was at $4.33, up 15% from a week ago, surging to the highest level since November 2023.
“Short term oil prices, which will drop rapidly when the destruction of the Iran nuclear threat is over, is a very small price to pay for U.S.A., and World, Safety and Peace,” President Donald Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Sunday night. “ONLY FOOLS WOULD THINK DIFFERENTLY!”
Earlier on Sunday, Wright said there is no shortage of oil or natural gas and blamed price increases on “fear and perception” that the Iran operation will be a drawn-out affair.
“But it won’t be,” Wright said on “Fox News Sunday,” echoing Trump’s prediction that the war will last weeks rather than months.
U.S. crude futures surged more than 20% in early trading in Asia on Monday, hitting their highest since July 2022, as the expanding war fueled fears of tighter supply and prolonged disruptions to shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.
In a statement late on Sunday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called on Trump to sell oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which currently holds about 415 million barrels of oil, or more than the entire world uses in four days.
“Trump should release oil from the SPR now to stabilize markets, bring prices down, and stop the price shock that American families are already feeling thanks to his reckless war,” said Schumer, a New York Democrat.
The Energy Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump on Thursday told Reuters that he was not looking to tap the strategic reserve.
Senator John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, criticized energy speculators.
“The oil prices have gone up because you’ve got a bunch of oil traders out there in their Gucci loafers, with their caramel Frappuccinos who are bidding up the price,” Kennedy said on “Fox News Sunday.”
Political analysts say a persistent rise in gasoline prices could hurt Republicans in the November midterm elections when control of the U.S. Congress will be at stake. A Reuters/Ipsos poll last month found that most respondents rejected Trump’s characterization of the economy as “booming.”
(Reporting by Katharine Jackson and Timothy Gardner in Washington, Curtis Williams in Houston and Diana Jones in Chicago; Writing by Steve Holland; Editing by Matthew Lewis, Sergio Non and Lincoln Feast.)
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