The aircraft carrier USS George Washington sails with Japanese military ships during exercise Valiant Shield in the Philippine Sea on June 21, 2026, before the carrier deployed to the Middle East. The American military has helped move more than 800 million barrels of crude oil and assisted roughly 1,600 vessels through the strait to date, according to U.S. Central Command. (Nicolas Quezada/U.S. Navy)
NAPLES, Italy — Oil shipments through the contested Strait of Hormuz are increasing under U.S. military protection, reaching their highest level in months but remaining below prewar levels.
Just under 11 million barrels of oil daily are transiting the Strait of Hormuz on a seven-day average, Energy Secretary Chris Wright told Bloomberg on Wednesday.
“We continue to grow the oil and oil products coming out of the (Persian) Gulf, Wright said. “The American Navy is doing a phenomenal job there.”
That was up from the 9 million barrels per day Wright cited in a CNN interview Sunday and considerably higher than the 6.1 million barrel daily average recorded by shipping analytics firm Kpler during the 60-day U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding that ended last month.
Still, the latest figure was short of the prewar average of about 15 million barrels per day in 2025, according to Kpler. Before the start of the conflict on Feb. 28, oil passing though the strategic waterway accounted for about 20% of global consumption.
The increased oil flow comes as turmoil escalates across the Middle East and crude oil prices climbed above $100 per barrel amid concerns about future supply disruption.
Oil prices ripple throughout the global economy, affecting transportation, manufacturing and energy costs that consumers can feel at the gas pump, grocery store and elsewhere.
On Friday, the average price of a gallon of unleaded gas in the United States was $4.30, more than a dollar higher than it was at the same time last year, according to AAA.
How exactly the U.S. is helping to keep the oil moving remains unclear. Officials have said only that forces are providing coordinated protection for tankers.
Analysts say U.S. helicopters, fighter jets and surface drones likely are providing protective cover against Iranian drones and missiles as tankers travel the strait during nighttime convoys.
The aircraft carriers USS George Washington and USS George H.W. Bush help enable a layered defense against Iranian missiles, speedboats and minelayers, said James Holmes, chair of the maritime strategy program at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I.
“You don’t really need a carrier to blockade Iranian tankers, but carrier aviation is highly useful for scouting and targeting enemy forces in the Strait of Hormuz,” Holmes said.
Notably, Navy ships are not directly escorting vessels through the strait, Samir Madani, co-founder of TankerTrackers.com, said on a podcast hosted by shipping expert and U.S. Merchant Marine Academy adjunct professor Sal Mercogliano.
Arab national fleet and leased tankers are making the passage with their location transponders turned off, traveling from the Persian Gulf to transfer their cargo to ships waiting in the Gulf of Oman, said Madani, whose company tracks crude oil shipments and specializes in dark fleet tankers.
U.S.-facilitated transits remain irregular and aren’t occurring daily but are becoming more frequent, he added.
“There’s a lot more volume going during the days that those convoys do pass through,” Madani said in the podcast.
In total, the U.S. military has successfully assisted in getting approximately 1,600 vessels and over 800 million barrels of crude oil through the strait since early May, U.S. Central Command spokesman Capt. Tim Hawkins said Tuesday. Multiple routes through the strait remain free and open for transit, he added.
Meanwhile, U.S. forces have destroyed 10 Iranian tankers, sinking at least one, in the past week in response to Iranian attempts to strike Navy ships, CENTCOM said Wednesday.
Despite American efforts, though, attacks persist.
On Thursday, two vessels traveling in the strait were struck by four unknown projectiles, causing a fire on one, according to the U.K. Maritime Trade Operations Center, a British military organization that monitors threats to commercial shipping in the region.
In August, there were 12 attacks on ships in the waterway, with 27 overall since July 6, the agency said earlier this month. Most of those were in a southern route near Oman, according to the report.
It’s uncertain how long the U.S. operations to protect shipping in the strait and enforce a maritime blockade against Iranian ports will continue.
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he expects Iran to capitulate to U.S. demands soon after the midterm elections in November.
But The Wall Street Journal reported the same day that top White House advisers, including Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have discussed the possibility that the conflict could continue through the remainder of Trump’s term.
The U.S. could keep up its military operations in the region indefinitely if logistics remain sound, Holmes said. But there will be opportunity costs, such as unexpected engineering problems on ships that may need to be fixed after a lengthy deployment, he added.
“There is a heavy price to keeping two flat-tops on station in one theater and running them that long,” Holmes said in reference to aircraft carriers.
