US military escorting 7 million barrels of oil daily through Strait of Hormuz

The U.S. military is escorting ships carrying approximately 7 million barrels a day of crude oil and fuel products through the Strait of Hormuz, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Friday.

That amount would bring the oil supply flowing through Hormuz to about half of what it was before the United States and Israel first started attacking Iran in February. The volumes being escorted out of the region are rising, added Wright, who was speaking at the Bloomberg Energy Security Executive Briefing in Houston.

About 20 million barrels of oil a day moved through the Arabian Gulf via the strait before the war, Wright said. About 5 million of that flow has shifted to pipelines and other transportation options, and output in the rest of the world has increased by about 1 million, he added, leaving a gap of about 14 million barrels.

“Flows today are approaching half of the gap, and they’re rising,” Wright said at the event.

The state of the U.S. war with Iran has become increasingly blurry, as President Donald Trump earlier this week said the U.S. would conduct more military strikes against the country, then walked that idea back, then indicated a deal could be signed this weekend and most recently said Iranian negotiators were “very dishonorable people to deal with.”

The spike in oil and gasoline prices that occurred after Iran all but closed Hormuz to traffic has bedeviled the Trump administration and Republicans who hope to keep control of Congress after what is shaping up to be a midterm election dominated by voters’ concerns over the high cost of living. Inflation hit 4.2 percent in May, the Labor Department reported earlier this week, driven by higher energy prices.

The naval escorts show the administration is achieving its twin goals of controlling energy prices while also preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, Wright said.

“We are living with higher energy prices,” he said. “People don’t think about these long-term issues.”

The administration is looking at other options, including another drawdown from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, Wright said. A gas-tax holiday “is possible” he added, although it would require congressional action.

“There are trade-offs in all of these issues,” he said. “The overriding objective is lower costs for all Americans.”