General License U (GL-U)

General License U (GL-U) is the first OFAC general licence ever issued authorising Iranian crude oil sales, introduced as part of the US-brokered Ceasefire framework in April 2026. It expires on 19 April 2026, eleven days into the Ceasefire window, creating an immediate expiry cliff for oil markets and Ceasefire diplomacy simultaneously. No renewal signal had emerged as of 9 April. Without renewal, the legal basis for Iranian crude sales under US sanctions law would lapse, potentially reversing any tanker traffic normalisation that had occurred during the ceasefire period.

General licences under OFAC typically authorise categories of transactions that would otherwise violate US sanctions, without requiring individual case-by-case approval. GL-U's novel application to Iranian crude sales represents a significant departure from the maximum pressure sanctions architecture that has governed Iran policy since 2018. Its issuance through OFAC rather than by executive order or legislation reflects the administration's preference for a reversible, administratively controlled mechanism rather than a durable statutory change.

The 19 April expiry date means that GL-U functions as a structural enforcement mechanism for Ceasefire compliance: if Iran's behaviour during the initial Ceasefire window is deemed unsatisfactory, the US can allow the licence to lapse without any new executive action, effectively reimposing the pre-Ceasefire sanctions regime automatically. Markets and tanker operators were pricing in significant uncertainty about whether GL-U would be renewed, which partly explained the zero-tanker transit count on Ceasefire Day 1 documented by Kpler.