White House denies Navy has escorted oil tanker through Strait of Hormuz

HUNT VALLEY, Md. (TNND) — White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt denied Tuesday that the Navy has escorted an oil tanker through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical Middle Eastern passage that has shut down during the Iran war.

Chris Wright, secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy, said in a social media post earlier in the day that the Navy guided a ship through the strait. He has since deleted his statement.

“I was made aware of this post. I haven’t had a chance to talk to the energy secretary about it directly,” Leavitt told reporters.

“However, I know the post was taken down pretty quickly, and I confirm that the U.S. Navy has not escorted a tanker or a vessel at this time.”

Ships have stopped traveling through the strait since the start of the war, which has involved multiple countries around the passage. Iran warned after the killing of its supreme leader earlier this month that any vessel moving through it would be destroyed, raising concerns about oil supply for countries across the world. Around a fifth of all petroleum passes through the strait.

“Around 20 million barrels a day – per day – move through the Straits of Hormuz,” Mason Hamilton, vice president of the American Petroleum Institute, said in a statement on Monday. “So for each day that shipping traffic is closed, that’s 20, plus 20, plus 20 every single day. And in a global market where consumption is, more or less on the average, around 100 million barrels per day, that’s 20% of the global supply that can’t get to market.”

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