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Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Thursday said that while the U.S. Navy may soon be in a position to escort oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz to protect them from attacks by Iran, the Navy isn’t yet ready to do so.
Wright said in an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that tanker escorts through the Strait of Hormuz – a vital chokepoint in the shipping lanes through the Persian Gulf – will be on the table in the near future as the air campaign against Iran’s military capabilities continues. Shipping traffic in the strait has largely ground to a halt due to the risk of Iranian attacks.
“It’ll happen relatively soon, but it can’t happen now,” Wright said in the interview. “We’re simply not ready. All of our military assets right now are focused on destroying Iran’s offensive capabilities and the manufacturing industry that supplies their offensive capabilities.”
The energy secretary was asked in the interview whether the Navy would be in a position to begin escorting tankers through the strait by the end of this month and Wright responded, “Yes, I think that is quite likely the case.”
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“Again, I’ll be over at the Pentagon later today. But that is what the military is working on and, yes, a lot of critical materials come out of the Strait of Hormuz,” Wright told CNBC.
“We have a large global economy. Fortunately, with President Trump’s policies, we’re a net exporter of oil, we’re a net exporter of natural gas, and in fact we’re growing our net exports of natural gas this spring, this summer. You’ll see massively more capacity online by the end of this year,” he added.
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Wright said in the interview that the Trump administration doesn’t want the Iran campaign to be a “brush off for a year or two” and wants to “permanently destroy their ability to build missiles, to build drones, to have a nuclear program.”
“It is short-term pain for the long-term gain, but it’s simply a must-achieve thing. Otherwise, you’ve got decades into the future of an Iran that can hold the world hostage whenever it wants,” he added.
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The energy secretary’s comments come after a subsequently deleted social media post on his X account indicated that the “U.S. Navy successfully escorted an oil tanker through the Strait of Hormuz to ensure oil remains flowing to global markets.”
However, the post was taken down and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed during a briefing that the “U.S. Navy has not escorted a tanker or vessel at this time. Though, of course, that is an option the president has said he will absolutely utilize if and when necessary at the appropriate time.”
Oil prices have surged amid the conflict with Iran, with prices briefly rising near $115 a barrel before declining and trading between about $80 and $95 a barrel this week.
Gasoline prices have also spiked, with AAA reporting the national average price for a gallon of gas rose to $3.598 a gallon as of Thursday – up from $2.944 a gallon a month ago.
