Trafigura, Vitol, Mercuria and ADNOC are negotiating with the U.S. government to buy or lease a subset of tankers on the U.S. sanctions list to relieve global tanker tightness and lower shipping costs. The discussions cover roughly 50 vessels out of about 1,600 on the U.S. list, including ultra-large crude carriers with ~2 million-barrel capacity. The U.S. Treasury is reviewing applications and is likely to consider case-by-case authorizations rather than a blanket waiver; no decision or timetab

Trafigura, Vitol, Mercuria and ADNOC are negotiating with the U.S. government to buy or lease a subset of tankers on the U.S. sanctions list to relieve global tanker tightness and lower shipping costs. The discussions cover roughly 50 vessels out of about 1,600 on the U.S. list, including ultra-large crude carriers with ~2 million-barrel capacity. The U.S. Treasury is reviewing applications and is likely to consider case-by-case authorizations rather than a blanket waiver; no decision or timetable has been announced. Reactivating idled ships could raise effective tanker capacity but may be constrained by maintenance and safety issues on older vessels; it is unclear whether any approvals would materially reduce oil prices. Any U.S. authorization would need safeguards against routing funds to sanctioned parties and would not remove separate EU or U.K. sanctions. As of Nov. 4 the U.S. had sanctioned 1,568 vessels, including 462 crude oil tankers.