HOUSTON — 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.
