U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Fox News on Tuesday that sanctioning Russian oil to end the Ukraine war is a “very real possibility.”
President Donald Trump said this month that Washington could put 100% tariffs on buyers of Russian oil and impose other sanctions if Moscow does not agree to a major peace agreement with Ukraine, a deadline that ends in early September.
“It is huge pressure on Russia,” Wright said in an interview on Fox News’ “Special Report with Bret Baier.”
“That’s the biggest pressure you can put on them,” Wright said.
The U.S. is the world’s top producer of oil and gas, a position Wright said means the U.S. can take action that was previously unthinkable.
“We’re able to do things that we couldn’t do before,” he said.
Despite that position, the Trump administration has not yet put major oil sanctions on Russia, preferring to impose them on OPEC producer Iran since the president took office for a second time in January.
(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Leslie Adler and Jamie Freed)