US Energy Secretary Chris Wright warns oil traders not to bank on Iran deal for Strait of Hormuz

Energy Secretary Chris Wright delivered a blunt message to global oil markets on September 13: stop pricing in a diplomatic breakthrough with Iran over the Strait of Hormuz, because one isn’t coming anytime soon. Wright cautioned traders against assuming that upcoming talks between Iran and Gulf nations would yield a quick agreement on tanker passage through the world’s most important oil chokepoint. Instead, he pointed to alternative transit routes already handling roughly 10 million barrels per day of crude and refined products as the more reliable bet for the foreseeable future. The chokepoint that moves the world’s oil The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow waterway between Iran and Oman, and it functions as the single most critical bottleneck in global energy logistics. Under normal conditions, somewhere between 17 and 20 million barrels per day pass through it. That’s roughly a fifth of the world’s total petroleum consumption flowing through a passage barely 21 miles wide at its narrowest point. US and Israeli military strikes against Iran earlier in 2026 triggered significant disruptions to shipping traffic through the strait. Since then, daily oil volumes moving through Hormuz ha...