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European Oil Markets
20JUL

The sanctions that need no signature

3 min read
10:00UTC

The US Treasury has kept sanctioning Iran throughout the war under a pre-war memorandum, freezing nearly half a billion dollars while Trump has signed no new order of his own.

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EconomicDeveloping
Key takeaway

US sanctions on Iran keep firing on pre-war authority; only sanctions relief needs a new signature.

The US Treasury has run a named, continuous sanctions campaign against Iran throughout the war, even as the White House has signed no new Iran measure. Treasury calls the campaign Economic Fury, and it operates under National Security Presidential Memorandum 2 (NSPM-2), a pre-war order that delegates designation power to the department rather than requiring a fresh presidential signature 1.

On 27 May the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), Treasury's sanctions arm, designated Iran's Persian Gulf Strait Authority for extorting Hormuz shipping tolls; on 10 June it blacklisted nine China and Hong Kong entities for arming the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) 2. Treasury says the campaign has frozen "nearly half a billion" dollars and disrupted "tens of billions" in regime-linked revenue 3. A direct query of the Federal Register returned zero new Iran filings between 29 June and 2 July 4.

The gap between an empty signing record and live enforcement has a mechanism. NSPM-2 delegates designation authority to OFAC through executive orders that predate the conflict, so Treasury can keep naming targets while any genuinely new instrument stalls. The one Iran action that did need a fresh signature, General Licence X, loosened sanctions rather than tightening them, and its missing escrow and reporting caps handed Chinese buyers a 60-day safe harbour . Relief requires a pen; pressure does not.

Donald Trump's public words and Washington's actions point in opposite directions. On 30 June he demanded cheap petrol on Truth Social and signed nothing ; on 1 July he called the denuclearisation of Iran "moving along well" 5. His earlier order for a Justice Department oil-gouging probe sits in the same column: enforcement motion that does not require settling the war.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

The US Treasury has been sanctioning parts of Iran's economy continuously since before the war even started, under a standing campaign called Economic Fury. It does not need the president to sign anything new each time: officials can add names to the sanctions list on autopilot. In the past six weeks alone, Treasury sanctioned the Iranian body that tries to collect tolls from ships in the Strait of Hormuz, and nine companies in China and Hong Kong accused of helping arm the IRGC, Iran's most powerful military force. Even though no new sanctions appeared in the official US government record for four straight days, that gap does not mean enforcement stopped.

Deep Analysis
Root Causes

Economic Fury runs on National Security Presidential Memorandum 2, a delegation of designation authority to Treasury that predates the war and requires no fresh presidential signature to continue. That is structurally different from General License X, the one Iran sanctions instrument that did need Scott Bessent's active signature to authorise oil sales and dollar payments .

The zero-filing gap between 29 June and 2 July does not mean enforcement paused: OFAC's designation pipeline runs independently of both the Doha talks and the Federal Register's publication cycle, so a quiet week in the public record does not mean a quiet week inside Treasury.

What could happen next?
  • Consequence

    Continued designations during the funeral pause keep economic pressure on Iran even while every diplomatic channel is closed.

  • Risk

    If Tehran reads ongoing designations as evidence Washington is not serious about a deal, it hands hardliners in the Assembly of Experts and IRGC ammunition against the negotiators.

Sources:US Department of the Treasury·US Department of the Treasury·Federal Register (National Archives)
Mentions:US Treasury →OFAC →Economic Fury →Persian Gulf Strait Authority →China →Federal Register →General License X →Donald Trump →White House →Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) →Iran →Strait of Hormuz →Tehran →Truth Social →Persian Gulf →Washington →Foundation for Defense of Democracies →Doha →NSPM-2 →Hong Kong →
First Reported In

Update #143 · Diplomacy pauses for a funeral under threat

US Department of the Treasury· 2 Jul 2026
Read original →
Causes and effects
Caused by
FDD: oil licence has no enforcement
General License X is the one Iran sanctions exception needing a fresh signature, unlike Economic Fury.
Occurred 23 Jun 2026
Read story →
Trump orders a DOJ oil-gouging probe
Trump's DOJ oil-gouging probe sits alongside Economic Fury as motion not requiring settling the war.
Occurred 24 Jun 2026
Read story →
This Event
The sanctions that need no signature
The pressure that actually costs Iran money runs on delegated authority, so it continues no matter what Doha produces.
Led to
Japan reopens Iran oil talks after 2019
Treasury's use of pre-war delegated sanctions authority is the same waiver framework Japanese buyers are now testing.
Occurred 3 Jul 2026
Read story →
Different Perspectives
Kuwait
Kuwait
Kuwait absorbed the Iranian strike that knocked generating units offline at a combined power-and-desalination plant on 17 July, the event that finally moved freight and insurance in lockstep with Brent. The strike hit essential civilian infrastructure, not a trading desk's benchmark.
Asian buyers (Singapore)
Asian buyers (Singapore)
Singapore's middle distillates rose 12% month-to-date to 8.91m barrels and fuel oil passed 19m barrels on a 105% net-import surge, buyers retaining barrels as the East-West arbitrage window narrows. Cargoes are being stockpiled ahead of further Hormuz-driven freight repricing rather than released west.
Austria (Coreper holdout)
Austria (Coreper holdout)
Vienna is blocking the same package over roughly EUR 2bn of frozen Russian assets earmarked for Raiffeisen, a domestic banking dispute with no connection to the oil cap racing toward its 23 July expiry. The linkage forces the whole package to wait on a bilateral compensation fight.
Greece (Coreper holdout)
Greece (Coreper holdout)
Athens is holding the 21st sanctions package at the 22 July Coreper vote over Russian LNG re-export rights, a condition unrelated to the oil price cap itself, leaving the $44.10 freeze one day from expiry without a deal. Greece's own tanker registry gives it a direct stake in how any shadow-fleet measures are drafted.
Marine underwriters (Gulf war-risk)
Marine underwriters (Gulf war-risk)
Hull war-risk cover for Hormuz transits widened to a 3-10% band on 17 July with 5% the emerging norm, up from a 3-4% baseline set in late June, the first repricing in six weeks to track a flat-price move rather than lag it. Cover resets on actuarial evidence of loss, not on diplomatic or price signals.
Money managers (CFTC-tracked)
Money managers (CFTC-tracked)
The CFTC's week-to-14-July snapshot, released 17 July, showed WTI managed-money net long collapsing 69% to 19,783 contracts and a standalone 60,141-contract net short on Brent Last Day (NYMEX). Both readings predate the Kuwait strike and the 20 July escalation, so any covering since is not yet visible in public data.