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By Arathy Somasekhar and Jarrett Renshaw
HOUSTON/WASHINGTON Nov 12 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s administration is set to extend a waiver to a US law in coming days allowing some foreign-flagged ships to transport oil and other commodities between US ports, four industry sources said on Thursday.
The extension will require individual voyages to undergo case-by-case review rather than allowing foreign ships to receive blanket exemptions from the Jones Act, two sources said. The waiver is one of the tools the administration has used to try to lower diesel and gasoline prices, which have been driven higher by the wars in Iran in Ukraine.
The waiver could come as early as Thursday, one of the sources said. The administration last extended the waiver in August until November 15, and it has already been the longest waiver in history for the more than 100-year old law.
A White House official said no decision has yet been made on the extension of the Jones Act waiver, adding that any announcements will be made directly Trump or his administration.
The Jones Act requires cargo moving between US ports to be carried on ships built in the US, owned by US companies and crewed by American workers, and the waiver aims to lower gas prices by increasing shipping flexibility and reducing transport bottlenecks.
While the Jones Act waiver increases the availability of tankers to move fuel, it would likely only reduce gasoline prices by pennies per gallon, some analysts and industry experts have said.
About 300 waivers were provided under the blanket Jones Act waivers in March and May, while about 48 waivers have been provided under the exemptions from August, which had limited the scope of the waivers, data from the administration showed.
US gasoline prices averaged about $3.91 on Thursday, compared with $2.98 before the US-Iran war, while diesel prices have risen to $6.10 versus $3.76 before the war, according to data from AAA.
(Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw and Arathy Somasekhar; Editing by Timothy Gardner and Chizu Nomiyama)
