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(Bloomberg) -- Scott Bessent, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Treasury secretary, said he would support dialing up sanctions on the Russian oil industry to end the war in Ukraine.

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If requested by Trump, “I will be 100% on board for taking sanctions up, especially on the oil majors, to levels that would bring the Russian Federation to the table,” Bessent said during his Senate confirmation hearing Thursday.

Bessent’s comments are some of the strongest yet by any incoming Trump cabinet pick in favor of ramping up sanctions pressure on Moscow, which have been discussed internally.

According to people familiar with the situation, advisers to Trump are crafting a wide-ranging sanctions strategy to facilitate a Russia-Ukraine diplomatic accord in the coming months.

One set of policy recommendations involves good-faith measures to benefit sanctioned Russian oil producers to help seal a peace deal, said the people, requesting anonymity as the deliberations are private. But a second option would build on existing sanctions, ramping up pressure even further to increase leverage, they said.

The US on Friday imposed its most aggressive sanctions on Russia’s oil industry yet as the outgoing Biden administration looks for last-minute ways to boost Ukraine’s leverage in possible peace negotiations.

Those measures targeted two firms that handle more than a quarter of Russia’s seaborne oil exports and more than 100 tankers, as well as vital insurers and traders.

However, the US has so far avoided targeting Russia’s biggest producer and exporter, state-controlled Rosneft PJSC, which accounts for more than 40% of Russia’s crude shipments to foreign markets. Bessent didn’t name any companies in the hearing.

Bessent also criticized the steps taken by President Joe Biden’s administration as not going far enough, and now saddling the incoming Trump team with higher energy prices.

“I believe the sanctions were not fulsome enough, I believe the previous administration was worried about raising US energy prices during an election season and I am perplexed to see that National Security Advisor Sullivan, on his way out the door, is raising the sanctions level on Russian oil companies,” he said.

--With assistance from Laura Davison.