Oil price crash prompts tougher US sanctions push on Iran, Venezuela flows: analysts

Rather than compelling the Trump administration to relax its oil sanctions regime, the global coronavirus pandemic and oil price crash may be motivating an even more aggressive US oil sanctions policy, particularly in stopping petroleum flows out of Venezuela and Iran, analysts said this week.

"Something that's really interesting is how much has not changed," said Elizabeth Rosenberg, director of the energy program at the Center for a New American Security and a former senior sanctions adviser at the Department of the Treasury. "In a collapsed oil market there's every additional opportunity for sanctions hawks to layer it on. In fact, it's in the interest of US producers who are grasping for a lifeline."

Read the full article and more in S&P Global Platts.