Big Four Oil Traders Negotiate with U.S. to Lift Sanctions on Tankers to Lower Freight Rates
nashnova research
Trafigura, Vitol, Mercuria, and ADNOC are negotiating with the U.S. government for licenses to buy or lease roughly 50 sanctioned tankers, aiming to ease freight rates that surged from about $5 per barrel to nearly $40 — an eightfold jump in one year.
Why did freight rates spike so dramatically?
After U.S. and Israeli military action against Iran, transit risk through the Strait of Hormuz rose sharply and tanker supply tightened.
Freight for a VLCC — the largest tanker class, carrying 2 million barrels — hit nearly $40 per barrel on the U.S.-to-Asia route; a year earlier it was about $5.
This means → freight alone added tens of dollars to delivered crude costs, helping keep oil prices near $100 a barrel.
What are the four traders trying to get?
Trafigura, Vitol, Mercuria, and ADNOC (Abu Dhabi National Oil Company) are in talks with U.S. officials for licenses to buy or charter tankers currently on U.S. sanctions lists.
The negotiations cover roughly 50 vessels out of about 1,600 total sanctioned ships (of which 462 are crude tankers).
In plain terms = they want to take a small slice of the "blacklisted fleet," make it compliant, and put it back on the water to push freight rates down.
Where does the U.S. government stand?
Energy Secretary Chris Wright said last month the government is working with investors to buy, refurbish, and redeploy idle sanctioned tankers — the goal is to "turn dark ships into compliant ships."
The Treasury Department, however, is leaning toward case-by-case approvals rather than a blanket waiver; no final decision has been made and the timeline remains unclear.
This means → the policy direction has loosened, but the pace and scale of actual relief are still highly uncertain.
How much capacity would this really add?
Sources say reactivating tankers that are already idle — such as the "Captain" tanker anchored off the Texas coast since last December — does more for capacity than simply re-flagging dark-fleet vessels still in service.
Sanctioned ships tend to be older, with maintenance and safety concerns, but they can still serve short routes like the U.S. to the Caribbean or Latin America, freeing newer vessels for long-haul voyages.
In plain terms = old ships run short hauls, new ships run long hauls — the net effect expands the fleet's usable capacity, but only if those old ships can be brought back to a seaworthy state.
What are the limits of these licenses?
Licenses from the U.S. Treasury or OFAC cover only U.S.-sanctioned vessels; EU and UK sanctions on Russian and Iranian oil remain separate and unaffected.
As of November 4, the U.S. sanctions list included 1,568 ships; this negotiation covers only about 50.
This reflects a hard ceiling: even if the talks succeed, the capacity released is a small fraction of the shortfall — the final impact depends on how many ships are approved, their condition, and their actual availability.
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