Is the U.S. secretly sneaking oil through the Strait of Hormuz, as Trump claims?
Soon after President Donald Trump said in the Oval Office on Wednesday that the United States has been secretly ferrying “millions of barrels” of oil through the Strait of Hormuz, Trump announced on social media that “more than 100 MILLION Barrels of Oil” and “more than 200 Commercial Ships” have successfully traveled through the strait.
“Last month, I directed our Great U.S. Military to execute a secret mission to support Oil Tankers and other Commercial Ships through the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump wrote on his social media platform.
“Today, I am pleased to announce that this effort has resulted in more than 100 MILLION Barrels of Oil making its way through the Straight, and into the Open Market. More than 200 Commercial Ships have safely traveled through the Strait.”
The president referred to it as a “secret mission” that he says was conducted last month amid the ongoing war with Iran, which has led the strait to be closed to regular commercial shipping. [Continue reading…]
In his social media post, the president claimed the military pushed out 100 million barrels of oil through the Strait of Hormuz.
Before the war broke out in the Gulf waters, about 140 vessels, including oil tankers, transited the chokepoint passage daily, sandwiched between the coasts of Iran and Oman. The passage hosted about 20 million barrels per day before tensions.
The president’s claim of 100 million barrels of oil is roughly equal to five days of pre-war output — compared with some two billion barrels that should have transited through the Strait of Hormuz over the duration of the war, if not for the ongoing conflict.
But even five days of pre-war maritime traffic through the strait would amount to about 700 ships.
And while, as Trump claimed, vessels being guided by the US military in the waterway have at times turned off their transponders, there is no evidence so far that the volume of traffic passing through the strait during the war is enough to support his claims. [Continue reading…]