US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Sunday that about “two-thirds of pre-conflict traffic,” or about 14 million barrels a day, is moving through the Strait of Hormuz despite renewed fighting between the US and Iran.
Wright said weekly averages show just under 7 million barrels flow through the Strait of Hormuz a day, and nearly another 7 million more barrels flow through the bypass pipelines.
“The ship numbers are down more dramatically (in the Strait of Hormuz), but of course we’re flowing larger tankers now to keep the world markets as well-supplied as we can,” Wright said during an appearance on ABC’s “This Week.”
Some key context: Those estimates are “unlikely” if Wright is referring to traffic between July 13 and 19, Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates, told CNN.
Traffic through the strait has slowed since the US and Iran began trading strikes last week. Those strikes effectively ended both countries’ commitment to a 14-point agreement that was supposed to ensure the strait remained open.
On Monday, two large crude carriers successfully moved 4 million barrels through the strait, according to Lipow, but another two carriers were badly damaged. Lipow noted that data analytics firm Kpler reported that no tankers have passed through the strait since July 15. Thirty-two ships moved through the waterway on July 10.
Lipow has said that about 200 million barrels transited the strait during the first three weeks of the ceasefire agreement.
Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates has hired tankers to shuttle oil from inside the strait, which may help oil escape the strait.
On the US response to military casualties: Wright was also asked on “This Week” about whether President Donald Trump is planning further retaliation for the killing of two US service members in Jordan.
“It’s tragic to lose American lives, but this is a mission that will save countless lives going forward,” Wright said. “(Trump’s) focus is on degrading the Iranian ability to terrorize the world, to hold world commerce hostage, as they are doing right now, and to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons. That is unchanged.”
