White House Energy adviser says sanctions will bring down Iran oil exports

(Bloomberg) — The US will enforce oil sanctions against Iran amid the renewed conflict in the Middle East, a White House Energy adviser said Wednesday.

“We are going to enforce those sanctions,” President Joe Biden’s energy security adviser Amos Hochstein said on Bloomberg Television, in reference to what he said amounted to more than 1 million barrels a day of oil exports from Iran. “Those numbers will come down.”

Hochstein’s remarks, made in an interview with Bloomberg Television on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco, come amid speculation on whether the US would tighten restrictions on Iranian oil exports, following the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas militants, for which Iran voiced its approval.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said last month that the Biden administration hasn’t ruled out new sanctions against Iran, while rejecting the notion that the US had gradually relaxed some enforcement of sanctions on Iranian oil sales as part of a wider efforts at a diplomatic rapprochement.

US enforcement of sanctions led to a significant “de-stocking or selling off of tankers on the water” over the summer, Hochstein said in Wednesday’s interview.

“I think the best anecdote to revenues in Iran is keeping their exports at a lower level, but also to make sure prices are lower,” he said.