The Treasury Department announced Monday that it issued a temporary license authorizing Iranian oil sales in a move analysts told The Lion hinders China, while the U.S. still skirts forecasted “nightmare scenarios” for oil and gas prices.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Monday on X that his department issued a 60-day general license authorizing the production, delivery and sale of Iranian oil after Iran committed to opening the Strait of Hormuz and allowing nuclear inspectors through its borders. The license allows payments in American dollars to Iran for crude oil, petrochemical and petroleum product imports to the U.S. for the first time in several years.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors will enter Iran to scrutinize its nuclear program as America continues peace talks with the nation.

Two energy analysts told The Lion that the move serves as effective leverage in the U.S.-Iran conflict and also complicates the picture for China, while America has averted an energy cost disaster despite doomsday predictions.

“For the Trump administration, the motivations here seem obvious: to get more oil onto the market as fast as possible to further lower oil prices and to provide a carrot incentive for Iran’s regime to negotiate with as much good faith as it is capable of mustering,” David Blackmon, an energy and policy writer who spent 40 years in the oil and gas business, told The Lion. “This reality does not harm American interests in any way – but it sure does create a financial hardship for China.”

China helps Iran evade U.S. sanctions and receives discounted oil from the Persian nation, according to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC). China is Iran’s primary buyer of oil, purchasing about 90% of it, according to the USCC.

Blackmon added that “despite all of its saber-rattling for domestic consumption, the Iranian regime is obviously in desperate need of income and appears to have little current appetite for more conflict.”

Blackmon noted that Bessent can reinstate sanctions at any moment, and the U.S. Navy remains ready to reimpose its blockade if Iran “fails to respond in good faith” to the deal.

James Taylor, president of the Heartland Institute, told The Lion that war, or even the threat of war, in the Middle East, often results in predictions of “a nightmare scenario for oil and gasoline prices.”

Taylor said that despite the conflict, the “nightmare” forecasts have not materialized and the average price of gasoline did not exceed the record hit under former President Joe Biden.

“Consumer-friendly energy policies outweigh even the detrimental effects of war in the Middle East,” Taylor said.

The average cost of gas is now below $4, according to AAA data, and NBC reported Monday that U.S. crude prices slipped below $75 for the first time since early March.

Though the head of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol, said the energy supply disruption due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz was the largest in history, the cost of oil, natural gas and coal have not exceeded previous peaks. Blackmon previously explained to The Lion that several factors, including a greater market cushion than many analysts believed was present, acted as a buffer against the U.S.-Iran conflict price spike.

Despite energy costs beginning to ease as traffic filters through the Strait, energy analysts warn that it will take several months for energy costs to fully adjust to the supply chain disruption.