Updates with White House comment in second paragraph.
US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell sharply in Tuesday afternoon trading after US energy secretary Chris Wright erroneously posted on social media that the US Navy had escorted a tanker through the strait of Hormuz.
Wright deleted the post shortly thereafter, and the White House subsequently said that in fact the US Navy has yet to escort any ship through Hormuz. WTI prompt contract was around $81/bl at 1:40pm ET, down by 14pc from Monday's settlement price.
The US Department of Energy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
US Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman General Dan Caine said earlier on Tuesday that the US military is only starting to assess the feasibility of providing naval escorts for the oil and LNG tankers through the Mideast Gulf and the strait of Hormuz.
"We'll look at the range of options to set the military conditions to be able to do that," Caine said at a Pentagon briefing. The military commanders will then present their conclusions to President Donald Trump and defense secretary Pete Hegseth, detailing "what are the resources required, what is the command and control required, and what are the risks and how do we mitigate those risks," Caine said.
Only a handful of oil tankers have passed through the strait of Hormuz since the war in the Middle East began 10 days ago, including, on Tuesday, a very large crude carrier (VLCC) linked to Iran. About 17mn b/d of oil — 14mn b/d of crude and condensate and 3mn b/d of refined products — were typically exported via Hormuz before the war.
Tanker shipowners speaking on a panel at a shipping forum in New York on Monday unanimously agreed that they would not be comfortable with their vessels transiting the strait of Hormuz given the region's security risk.
