Trump says 28 million barrels moved through Strait of Hormuz in a day
The claim collides with reports of mined tankers and strikes on vessels still transiting the strait
Published
Map: The Gulf and Hormuz, marking Strait of Hormuz
President Trump said 28 million barrels of oil were removed from the Strait of Hormuz yesterday, a figure he cast as evidence of record flow through the waterway.
The claim runs against a string of reports from the strait itself. Seven vessel strikes have been logged since late September. Traders have cited a pace of roughly two vessels a day moving through the strait, far below the pre-conflict average. Iran's Revolutionary Guard Navy has said it attacked an LPG tanker there, firing on it as it tried to pass through illegally, with a significant fire reported aboard, and a day later the Guard threatened punishment for ship violations beyond Hormuz. Iran's Fars news agency has also reported heavy explosions in the southern strait, with military sources describing the blasts as shipping traffic remained near a standstill.
Trump said on Thursday that a blockade on Iran will stay in full force, even as the United States and Iran remain apart on what reopening the strait would require. Crude fell below $90.50 that same day after he ruled out striking Iran before the election, saying the no-strike pledge holds through November 3 while the blockade remains in place. On Friday he repeated that the situation will end soon and said prices will fall after the war, without adding new terms on talks, sanctions or military timing.
The 28 million barrel figure lands on the side of the dispute that points to record flow, alongside the Navy's reopening claim and Trump's own record-volume post on Thursday. It runs against UKMTO's and Fars's repeated reports of mined tankers and Guard strikes on vessels transiting the strait. A single day's barrel count cannot settle whether transit has actually normalized or whether the pace traders have described still holds, and it does nothing to resolve the dispute over sequencing a blockade and a reopening that has sunk every prior proposal. Taken against that pattern, the figure reads as another entry in a contested tally rather than confirmation that the standoff is over.