U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright this week said that the 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 and struggling to reconcile these numbers 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.
Of all oil exports out of the Middle East,…