(David Goldman – CNN) Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Tuesday that oil exports from the Middle East rose above pre-war levels on Sunday and have been right around normal for a week — a highly dubious claim that does not appear to be backed up by observable shipping traffic.
Wright said in a post on X that the oil flows were restored to normal levels after the US military coordinated a plan with allied Gulf nations to get crude through the Strait of Hormuz and Middle Eastern countries bypassed the waterway via pipelines or other export facilities.
It’s not clear how Wright arrived at that conclusion. Just 84 total vessels transited the Strait of Hormuz last week — including only nine on Sunday, according to Kpler, an oil market data service that uses satellite imagery and shipping transponders to provide up-to-date crude flow information. That’s down from more than 100 transits a day before the war and not nearly enough to carry the 9 million barrels per day through the strait that Wright claims has been traveling through the waterway.
The Global Eye is in partnership with SIOI – Società Italiana per l’Organizzazione Internazionale
