US Navy-escorted Hormuz oil shipments rising, Energy Secretary says
US Energy Secretary Chris Wright says the seven-day rolling average of covert oil shipments escorted by the US Navy through the Strait of Hormuz is rising and will continue to rise.
The seven-day rolling average of covert oil shipments accompanied by the United States Navy through the Strait of Hormuz is climbing and is expected to keep climbing, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Monday.
Speaking at a press conference in Vienna on the sidelines of a meeting of the United Nations nuclear watchdog, Wright said the upward trend in the rolling average was clear. "The trend in that seven-day rolling average has been going up and will continue to go up," he said.
Wright also revised upward a figure he had cited earlier in the month. A peak of 17 million barrels in a single day, which he referenced on September 1, was in fact higher, he said, because one vessel had not been included in the count. "There was one ship not counted. It turned out it was almost spot on 18 million barrels that day," he said.
The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow waterway at the mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a substantial share of the world's seaborne oil passes. The US Navy has periodically provided escorts to commercial tankers transiting the strait.