Russia’s oil export revenue nearly doubled in March to $19 billion after the United States eased sanctions on Russian crude to help stabilise global energy markets during the war on Iran, according to data from the International Energy Agency.
Russian crude and oil product exports surged to 7.1 million barrels per day in March, up from just 320,000 barrels per day in February, when full sanctions were still in force. The dramatic increase was enabled by a US waiver that allowed countries to purchase Russian oil already at sea.
Waiver now expired
The sanctions relief window closed on April 11, meaning the conditions that enabled Moscow’s export windfall no longer apply. This has direct implications for Sri Lanka, which had been negotiating a political-level oil deal with Russia against the backdrop of the waiver.
With the waiver expired, any Sri Lankan purchase of Russian crude would now carry US sanctions risk — complicating the government’s efforts to diversify fuel supply away from volatile Middle Eastern sources. Sri Lanka had also sought a separate US waiver alongside Bangladesh for Russian oil imports.
The IEA data underscores how the US-Iran conflict has inadvertently delivered a revenue bonanza to Moscow — the very country Washington has been trying to financially isolate since the Ukraine invasion.
