![\"Christopher](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/a95a11dc-f98d-4d2d-9a18-683120f36902_1648217903.file.png\")
<\/a>WASHINGTON \u2014<\/p>\nThe Trump administration is pointing to increased oil movement through the Strait of Hormuz and billions of dollars in new investment in Venezuela as signs of progress in addressing high fuel prices and disrupted global oil supplies.<\/p>\n
But experts say drivers should not expect those developments to translate into significantly lower prices anytime soon.<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the United States is making progress moving oil through the Strait of Hormuz, the vital waterway that has been severely disrupted during the war with Iran.<\/p>\n
“We have controlled and we are controlling the Hormuz Strait. We are bringing lots of boats out every day with millions of barrels of oil,” Trump said. <\/p>\n
Energy Secretary Chris Wright said 17 million barrels of oil passed through the strait Monday, the highest volume since the war began. <\/p>\n
Wright was also in Venezuela Wednesday, meeting with interim President Delcy Rodriguez as Chevron and other energy companies announced agreements aimed at expanding oil production in the country. <\/p>\n
Chevron plans to invest more than $7 billion in its Venezuelan operations over the next five years, with the goal of roughly doubling production to about 600,000 barrels per day.<\/p>\n
Wright said the agreements represented “tens of billions of dollars of investment” and were “critical in starting this ball rolling of peace, opportunity and prosperity for everyone in Venezuela.” <\/p>\n
Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, said Venezuela could eventually make a noticeable difference in global oil supply, but building the drilling capacity and infrastructure needed to significantly increase production will take years. <\/p>\n
“It’s certainly not something that will happen tomorrow or next week or in a month or even in a year,” De Haan said. De Haan said it would likely take several years before the additional Venezuelan production begins to have a noticeable impact.<\/p>\n
“And it will be a noticeable impact,” De Haan said. “But it will take a significant amount of time.” <\/p>\n
There is also disagreement over how much conditions have actually improved in the Strait of Hormuz. De Haan said oil traffic through the waterway remains nowhere near prewar levels. Wright said with increased transport through the strait, along with other pipelines, the regional output was above prewar levels Monday.<\/p>\n
“If there were, it would be quite simple. Oil prices and gasoline prices would start to decline,” De Haan said. <\/p>\n
When asked whether there are signs conditions will substantially improve for American drivers in the near future, De Haan pointed to the lack of progress resolving the geopolitical tensions that have driven prices higher. <\/p>\n
“These issues have lingered for six months. There’s been very little concrete sign of any resolution at any high level,” De Haan said. <\/p>\n
Diesel prices are also approaching historic levels. De Haan said GasBuddy’s national diesel average reached its highest level of 2026 Wednesday at about $5.71 per gallon, roughly 11 cents below the all-time record of $5.82 set in June 2022. <\/p>\n
He said a new record in the coming days now appears likely. Higher diesel prices can affect consumers even if they drive gasoline-powered vehicles because diesel is heavily used in farming, trucking and the transportation of consumer goods. <\/p>\n
“Virtually everything in this economy moves with diesel,” De Haan said. <\/p>\n
Wright has also predicted gasoline prices will fall in the coming weeks, pointing to regulatory changes affecting refiners. The Trump administration allowed the annual transition away from more expensive summer-blend gasoline to begin about two weeks earlier than usual this year in an effort to increase fuel supplies and lower prices. <\/p>\n
De Haan said lower prices are typical during the fall as the country switches to cheaper winter-blend gasoline and demand declines after the summer driving season. <\/p>\n
“That happens every single year. That is not something new this year,” De Haan said. He said gas prices generally face downward pressure in the fall but cautioned that renewed geopolitical tensions could erase that seasonal relief. “If those geopolitical tensions flare up, there is the possibility that they could offset the typical seasonal relief that we see,” De Haan said. <\/p>\n
Separately Wednesday, Trump floated another change involving the Strait of Hormuz: its name. The president proposed renaming the waterway the “Trump Strait,” citing his assertion that the United States now controls it. <\/p>\n
The White House later posted a map using the proposed name. The Strait of Hormuz is an international waterway between Iran and Oman. A name adopted by the U.S. government would not unilaterally change what other countries or international organizations call it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hormuz oil flows improve as Venezuela investment grows, but gas relief lags Increased oil flows through the Strait…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275674,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[28],"tags":[1223,395,102,75233,8071,213,899,1146,35733,1219,101,75232,7617,2863,9113,878],"class_list":["post-276009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-strait-of-hormuz","tag-barrel","tag-day","tag-hormuz","tag-low-price","tag-next-week","tag-oil","tag-oil-production","tag-patrick-de-haan","tag-progress","tag-strait","tag-strait-of-hormuz","tag-venezuela-investment","tag-waterway","tag-wednesday","tag-wright","tag-year"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117204926402412709","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276009","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=276009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}