US Energy Secretary: US Not Yet Ready to Escort Tankers Through Strait of Hormuz

According to Xinhua News Agency, U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said in an interview with American media on the 12th that the United States is currently “not ready” to escort oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz.

“This will happen soon, but not now. We are not prepared at the moment. All our military resources are currently focused on destroying Iran’s offensive capabilities and the manufacturing systems supporting those capabilities,” Wright said.

Wright indicated that the U.S. Navy might be capable of escorting oil tankers before the end of this month. He revealed, “I will be going to the Pentagon later today — the military is pushing this forward.”

Earlier on Thursday, Brent crude oil, the global benchmark for oil prices, again reached $100 per barrel, due to ongoing attacks on merchant ships in the Persian Gulf this week.

On Tuesday, Wright posted on social media that the U.S. Navy had escorted an oil tanker through the Strait of Hormuz, but this statement was later confirmed to be false. The post was quickly deleted, but it temporarily caused oil prices to plummet more than 17% intraday on Tuesday.

Last week, President Trump promised that the U.S. Navy would begin escorting oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz as soon as possible.

Currently, due to shipowners’ concerns about attacks by Iran, oil transportation through the Strait of Hormuz has largely halted.

The Strait of Hormuz is the only出口通道 in the Persian Gulf. Before the outbreak of war, about one-fifth of global oil consumption was transported through this narrow waterway.

On Wednesday, member countries of the International Energy Agency (IEA) announced they would release 400 million barrels of oil reserves to address this severe supply shock. As part of the action, the U.S. will release 172 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).

In its monthly report on Thursday, the IEA stated that the Middle East war is causing the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market. The agency estimates that global oil supply will decrease by about 8 million barrels per day this month, totaling nearly 250 million barrels.

Despite the largest emergency release of oil reserves in history initiated by the IEA, the oil market has not yet stabilized. How long the war will last and when oil and gas transportation through the Strait of Hormuz will return to normal remain uncertain.

The Trump administration has been trying to reassure the market, claiming that the war will end soon.

Wright said on Thursday, “This is an operation that will take weeks to complete, not months.”

However, Iran remains firm, rejecting the U.S. demand for surrender and warning that its goal is to push oil prices up to $200 per barrel.