LONDON: Between 20 and 30 tankers are passing through the Strait of Hormuz each night, with US President Donald Trump insisting “that sucker is open,” US news website Axios reported on Friday.
Shipping through the waterway was drastically restricted by an Iranian blockade after the US and Israel launched attacks on Tehran six months ago.
But Washington claims vessels are increasingly able to pass through one of the world’s most important energy chokepoints thanks to the efforts of the US military.
“That sucker is open,” Trump told news website Axios in a phone interview. “The Iranian response is very mild. They don’t want us to go back at them. That’s the whole ball game. The rest doesn’t matter.”
The report said Washington believes it has turned the tide on Iran’s ability to control the strait, which was conduit for 20 percent of the world’s oil supplies before the conflict.
In recent weeks, traffic through the southern shipping channel along the coast of Oman has increased to 20 to 30 tankers every night, carrying an average of 9 to 10 million barrels of oil, the officials said.
While that figure amounts to roughly half pre-war levels, it shows that more ships are getting through than earlier in the conflict, particularly after an interim deal collapsed in early July, leading to a wave of Iranian attacks on tankers.
Bloomberg also reported on Thursday that flows are increasing, with oil traders estimating that about 6 to 8 million barrels a day of crude now being shipped through the strait.
The increase also corresponds with a drop in the number of attacks on shipping in the strait.
While tankers continue to be attacked, including two this week, Axios reported that only 2 percent of ships that transited through the strait over the last month were hit.
Earlier, the commander of US military forces in the region said they had completed the removal of sea mines from the shipping lanes in Hormuz.
Update from CENTCOM Commander: pic.twitter.com/osPbltjJ1C
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) August 28, 2026
“Today, international shipping lanes are open and momentum is building,” Adm. Brad Cooper of Central Command said in a video. “Over the past several months, US forces have assisted nearly 1,500 commercial vessels in transiting the strait by providing coordinated protection.
“Those ships were carrying nearly 750 million barrels of crude oil destined for global energy markets.
At the same time, he said, a US blockade of Iranian ports meant that no oil had been exported from Iran since mid July.
The signs that more oil is flowing through the strait has been reflected in global oil prices, which fell again on Friday and were on track for a weekly drop, Reuters reported.
