{"id":256720,"date":"2026-08-19T21:27:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T21:27:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/256720\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T21:27:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T21:27:13","slug":"us-guides-millions-of-oil-barrels-through-strait-of-hormuz-in-stealth-operation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/256720\/","title":{"rendered":"US guides millions of oil barrels through Strait of Hormuz in stealth operation"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US has been stealthily shepherding millions of barrels of oil a day across the Strait of Hormuz<\/a>, helping prevent further shocks to the world\u2019s oil markets, analysts said. <\/p>\n

The US successfully protected tankers carrying about 5 million barrels of oil daily throughout July by conducting stealth missions near the Omani coast, the New York Times reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The US Navy has been stealthily guiding ships out of the Strait of Hormuz since May, freeing millions of barrels of oil a day. US Central Command (CENTCOM)\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Ships are sneaking through the Omani-half of the strait, which has come under repeated fire from Iran. Anadolu via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have been extraordinarily effective in keeping that southern corridor operating, despite the attacks<\/a>,\u201d Windward shipping analyst Michelle Wiese Bockmann told the outlet. <\/p>\n

The missions began in May with around 70 ships crossing<\/a> in the first three weeks \u2014 many opting to use shadow fleet tactics such as turning off their radars to sneak by undetected.<\/p>\n

Despite repeated attacks from Iran, which claims to control the strait, the ships continued to cross regularly through June and July, which likely kept oil prices from breaking into the triple digits like it did during the first months of the war. <\/p>\n

US Energy Secretary Chris Wright estimated that even more oil was sneaking through, claiming that 9 million barrels of oil<\/a> were passing through Hormuz daily. <\/p>\n

Follow The Post\u2019s coverage of the war in Iran:<\/p>\n

US Central Command, which oversees the missions, approximates that it has helped more than 1,000 ships cross the strait since the war began.<\/p>\n

The operation, however, does not come without significant costs, with the US forced to deploy ships, helicopters and planes to intercept attacks from Iran. <\/p>\n

The US naval mission in the Middle East is also carrying on the blockade on Iran\u2019s ports. Getty Images<\/p>\n

The cost of intercepting the strikes is notably higher than what it costs Iran to attack using its cheaper suicide drones.<\/p>\n

The interceptions are also not foolproof, with at least 15 ships taking damage from Iranian fire since June, according to the United Nations\u2019 International Maritime Organization.<\/p>\n

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The attacks have also resulted in the death of three seafarers and left another 16 injured, with the latest deadly attack taking place on Tuesday, according to the UK Maritime Trade Operations. <\/p>\n

The deadly attacks have left many ships still unwilling to cross the Strait of Hormuz, with about two-thirds of the pre-war oil flow still trapped by Iran\u2019s constant attacks. <\/p>\n

While oil prices are still lower than from the height of the war, the breakdown in negotiations between the US and Iran led the Brent crude benchmark to spike to $93 per barrel on Wednesday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US has been stealthily shepherding millions of barrels of oil a day across the Strait of Hormuz,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256721,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[28],"tags":[687,102,34,1488,213,101,82],"class_list":["post-256720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-strait-of-hormuz","tag-drones","tag-hormuz","tag-iran","tag-navy","tag-oil","tag-strait-of-hormuz","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117124297126586861","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}