On Monday, Washington announced an end to all waiver sanctions for Iranian oil importers, causing WTI crude oil prices to touch the highest levels reached so far this year. At the time of writing, WTI is trading at around $65.85, up nearly 0.5%.

The US has demanded all countries worldwide to stop purchasing oil from Iran by May 1 or get ready to face sanctions. In November 2018, the US had announced further sanctions on Iran but had granted waivers to eight countries, mostly in Asia, to continue limited purchases of Iran oil for a period of six months.

With the OPEC supply cut still underway as well as sanctions on Venezuala, this latest decision by the US could further tighten oil supply in global markets. The US remains hopeful that Saudi Arabia and the UAE could offset this dip in oil supply, but OPEC doesn’t meet until June to decide on oil production outputs.