Iran-US war latest: Oil stockpiles 'rapidly depleting' despite Trump claiming 'total control' of Strait of Hormuz

A global energy watchdog has warned in a new report that oil stockpiles are “rapidly depleting”, as it urged for a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

“Although the market is projected to return to surplus towards the end of this year, risks remain substantial and the urgency of reopening the Strait has increased, as previously available inventory buffers are rapidly depleting,” the International Energy Agency wrote in a new report.

The agency said that supply is expected to fall by 4.3 mb/d (million barrels per day) in 2026 due to losses in the Middle East and Russia.

It comes despite Donald Trump’s unfounded claim that US forces “totally ⁠control the Strait of Hormuz”.

“Nobody else, only us [controls it],” he said. “At some point, maybe they'll do something and then they get blown away.”

Meanwhile, the US military fired on a Panamanian-flagged ship in the Gulf of Oman yesterday after accusing it of trying to evade the American blockade on Iranian ports.

The military said the vessel had ignored warnings to stop, prompting an American helicopter to fire missiles into the engine room of the M/V Vela Nova, disabling the ship.

The US ambassador to Israel has claimed that the Iranian regime is the "weakest they have been since they took over in 1979” amid Donald Trump's war on Tehran.

“The operation between the United States and Israel did an enormous level of damage,” Mike Huckabee told Newsmax, praising the US president's bid to “bankrupt them”.

Global oil stockpiles are “rapidly depleting”, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has warned in a new report.

“Although the market is projected to return to surplus towards the end of this year, risks remain substantial and the urgency of reopening the Strait has increased, as previously available inventory buffers are rapidly depleting,” the agency wrote in its Oil Market Report for August 2026.

The report states that oil supply is forecast to fall by 4.3 mb/d (million barrels per day) in 2026 to around 102 mb/d. An increase of 1.4 mb/d in the Americas “only partly offsets losses in the Middle East and Russia.”.

It comes while an agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and free transit through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait are “still elusive”, the report says.

It adds that crude prices had surged to a two-month high in July after the ceasefire between the US and Iran broke down in mid-June.

“Expectations of diplomatic progress had triggered steep price declines in June and early July, but a return to hostilities led prices to spike as high as $105/bbl [per barrel] on 23 July,” it wrote.

US president Donald Trump admitted late last night that he secretly switched planes in Turkey last month ⁠at the direction of the US Secret Service, but that the plane he ultimately flew on was still more vulnerable than Air Force One.

"I think actually the ​plane ⁠that I flew on was at ‌greater risk," Trump told reporters.

"I think it was at greater risk because that would be the plane I think that they would be more likely to go for."

Following a Nato summit in Ankara, Trump was transferred from Air Force One to a military plane via a catering truck in an extraordinary deception prompted by an Iranian assassination threat, ⁠US media reported.

"Well, it's only up to the Secret Service. ⁠I just follow what they'd like to do, so I go by Secret Service and the military," Trump said.

"I guess there was a threat out there. I didn't really ask too much about it. I get a lot of threats," Trump added.

Iran will soon join the New Development Bank, the BRICS development lender, according to central bank governor Abdolnaser Hemmati.

Mr Hemmati made the claim in a state media report published on Wednesday ahead of a BRICS finance meeting in India.

Tehran, which is under international sanctions and has yet to reach a peace deal to end the current conflict with the US and Israel, has sought alternative financial channels outside the dollar system.

It joined BRICS in 2024 as the group expanded, in a move aimed at deepening economic ties among emerging economies, and it has since made clear its desire to become a member and shareholder of the NDB.

The bank was fitst set up by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa in 2015 to finance infrastructure and sustainable development projects. It has since expanded its membership to include the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and other emerging economies.

The number of vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz dropped to a one-week low of eight on Tuesday, according to the latest shipping data.

Ship owners continue to avoid the waterway, through which 130 to 140 ships typically transited each day before the US-Israeli war was launched on 28 February, as hostilities continue in the Middle East.

Tuesday’s tally dropped below 10-day average of 12, for the lowest daily count since August 5, Kpler data showed.

Just one of the ships exited the strait, with the rest still making their way through at the time of reporting.

The seven entering all took the Iranian route.

Separate LSEG data showed 11 transits on Tuesday, down from 14 the prior day.

The price of Brent crude has climbed 0.8 per cent to $89.57 a barrel, following fresh attacks on shipping in the Middle East as hopes fade for a resolution to the Iran conflict.

The US and Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis both reported attacks on shipping.

Tehran said the Strait of Hormuz would remain closed unless Washington accepted Iran's conditions.

The six-month-old conflict showed no signs of ending soon, despite repeated claims by U.S. President Donald Trump that a deal was imminent.

Markets have swung between optimism and disappointment since the war began, as investors tried to gauge the risk of a broader disruption to energy supplies and global trade.

A cable TV polling expert claims that numbers from two surveys conducted two years apart show just how deeply President Donald Trump has disappointed America's voters when it comes to Iran.

CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten said Tuesday that a July 2024 poll of people who were extremely motivated to vote in that year’s presidential election found that 53 percent were confident Trump would be able to handle the situation in Iran, according to a video clip posted online.

But a July poll of people extremely motivated to vote in November's midterm elections shows that just 29 percent now approve of how Trump is actually handling Iran, Enten said.

"We're talking about a 24-point fall in just two years," he said. "What was an advantage for President Trump going into the 2024 election amongst those who really wanted to turn out and vote has turned into a tremendous disadvantage this time around."

At least six people were killed by Iran-backed Houthi rebels attacking a vessel in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the Yemeni authorities said.

Yemen's coast guard said the dead included four crew members and two members of the government-allied National Resistance Forces.

Houthis fired three ballistic missiles at the Yemeni commercial vessel, according to Yemen's internationally recognised government.

They are the first known deaths from Houthi attacks on shipping off Yemen in the latest bout of fighting in the Arab country.