US Energy Secretary's Claim on Middle East Oil Exports Sparks Dispute
US Energy Secretary Chris Wright claims that oil exports from the Middle East have rebounded to 15 million barrels per day (bpd) and even topped the pre-war average of 20 million bpd on Sunday.
Vessel-tracking services and commodity analysts are baffled by this claim, as they struggle to reconcile it with their observations of tanker loadings and traffic in the region.
Ship-tracking data shows oil flows out of the Strait of Hormuz are, at best, half the volume cited by Secretary Wright. In fact, various tanker-monitoring data show a gap of between 3 million bpd and 5 million bpd, as most vessel-tracking companies are estimating only about 9 million bpd leaving the region via all its export channels so far this month.
Kpler's director of commodity research, Matt Smith, commented on Wright's claim: 'It is not possible to reconcile the disparity between what we see and what he is quoting.'