U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said nearly 7 million barrels of oil are now exiting the Persian Gulf daily—about half of the volumes that were stranded by the Strait of Hormuz chokepoint—thanks to U.S. military assistance, but Chevron CEO Mike Wirth rebutted the assertion, arguing that smaller, albeit rising, volumes are trickling out.
More oil clearly has begun moving through the Strait of Hormuz of late amid the ongoing Iran war—although the exact volumes are hard to parse—but Wright’s estimates surprised energy market analysts to the upside. He credited U.S. military intervention. More vessels are also taking the calculated risk by turning off their transponders and going dark. Both Wright and Wirth were speaking June 12 at a Bloomberg energy event in Houston.
