US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Sunday that Navy escorts guiding tankers through the Strait of Hormuz remain essential to sustaining crude flows and show no sign of ending soon. Speaking on CNN’s State of the Union, Wright said oil transits through the strait are now averaging more than 9 million barrels per day, with the wider region back to roughly two-thirds or more of pre-conflict flow levels once pipeline and alternative routes are included. “We’re getting a lot of ships through, but of course it requires the US military to do that,” Wright said, adding that “the Iranians are still causing trouble, but the United States Navy is winning that battle.”
The comments follow a wartime-high escort operation in which the US military guided 40 commercial vessels carrying some 18 million barrels of oil through the strait in a single day, according to US officials, while simultaneously striking dozens of Iranian military targets and neutralizing anti-ship cruise missiles and drone attacks. Wright said that while other nations have largely avoided joining the escort mission, South Korea’s government is reviewing potential military support, and the UK and France have previously floated a multinational effort to clear mines and protect civilian shipping in the waterway. For now, Wright said, “it is the US Navy that’s assuring that this flow comes out,” describing Tehran’s continued disruption attempts as “a losing game for Iran.”
Source: Bloomberg / Energy Connects — https://www.energyconnects.com/news/gas-lng/2026/september/us-energy-chief-says-navy-to-defend-hormuz-until-iran-backs-down
Tags: Strait of Hormuz, US Navy, Iran, Oil Tankers
