U.S. energy secretary says 7 million barrels of oil exiting Persian Gulf daily, but Chevron CEO rebuts the claim

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said nearly 7 million barrels of oil are now exiting the Persian Gulf daily—about half of the volumes that were stranded by the Strait of Hormuz chokepoint—thanks to U.S. military assistance, but Chevron CEO Mike Wirth rebutted the assertion, arguing that smaller, albeit rising, volumes are trickling out.

More oil clearly has begun moving through the Strait of Hormuz of late amid the ongoing Iran war—although the exact volumes are hard to parse—but Wright’s estimates surprised energy market analysts to the upside. He credited U.S. military intervention. More vessels are also taking the calculated risk by turning off their transponders and going dark. Both Wright and Wirth were speaking June 12 at a Bloomberg energy event in Houston.

With nearly 20% of the world’s global oil flows initially disrupted by the war, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are diverting more volumes via pipelines. Wright said that left about a 14-million-barrel-per-day gap in typical flows of crude oil and some petroleum products.

“Flows today are approaching half of the gap, and they’re rising,” Wright said. “Ultimately, we will restore the flows with or without [Iran].”

He said the 7 million barrels per day is a “rough estimate,” adding, “and it’s rising.”

But the Chevron CEO contended that those numbers don’t quite match what the Big Oil gi...