March 6 (Reuters) – The U.S. Treasury’s plan to address rising energy prices in the wake of the Iran conflict, including potential measures involving the oil futures market, remains under consideration but there is no immediate plan to announce anything for now, an administration official said on Friday.
Earlier in the day, Bloomberg News reported that the Trump administration is ruling out deploying the Treasury Department to trade oil futures for now, citing a person familiar with the matter.
Late on Thursday, a White House official said the Treasury Department is expected to announce measures to combat rising energy prices from the conflict, a prospect that briefly pushed oil prices down by more than 1% earlier on Friday.
Prices were on track for their strongest weekly gain since the extreme volatility of the COVID‑19 pandemic in spring 2020, as conflict in the Middle East kept shipping and energy exports through the vital Strait of Hormuz halted. [O/R]
(Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw, Shubham Kalia and Ashitha Shivaprasad; Editing by Alexandra Hudson, Elaine Hardcastle)
