US quietly opens oil corridor through Hormuz despite Iran war stalemate

The United States has quietly established a military-controlled shipping corridor through the Strait of Hormuz, allowing millions of barrels of oil to reach world markets despite the wider conflict with Iran remaining largely deadlocked.

According to US officials cited by Axios, the operation has been running for several weeks, with 15 to 20 tankers entering and leaving the strait each night through a southern channel along the Omani coast.

The operation is now moving around 10 million barrels of oil a day — roughly half the volume that passed through Hormuz before the war.

A secret oil highway

The operation goes considerably further than simply escorting oil tankers.

US forces are coordinating the movement of loaded tankers leaving the Gulf while also allowing empty tankers to enter through the strait from the Arabian Sea, collect oil from Gulf producers and return through the same southern corridor.

Ships are organised into scheduled movements, with outbound and inbound traffic given separate windows and directed through the southern channel under US military guidance.

US officials claim they have effectively controlled that lane for around two months.

“The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps can be a nuisance, but they don't control the strait. We do,” one official told Axios.

The US Air Force provides protection against Iranian drones and cruise missiles.

Iran's surveillance degraded

The operation reportedly became possible after a two-week US Central Command campaign damaged Iranian radar and maritime surveillance systems.

US officials say Iran now has only a limited number of functioning radars and small IRGC boats monitoring the southern channel.

That has made Iranian attacks considerably less precise, with drones and cruise missiles often launched towards the general area where ships are believed to be travelling.

Some vessels have been hit, but US forces have intercepted many of the incoming threats. Officials say American forces recently shot down eight Iranian drones and two cruise missiles in a single operation.

Half the normal oil flow

The numbers show why the operation matters.

Before the war, roughly 20 million barrels of oil and petroleum products could pass through Hormuz each day. The US-organised corridor is now moving around 10 million barrels daily, although some individual nights have reportedly seen flows of 15 million to 20 million barrels.

That is still below normal — but it is enough to put a significant amount of crude back into the global market and reduce some of the pressure created by the conflict.

It also explains why oil supplies have not been hit as severely as might otherwise have been expected from a prolonged Hormuz shutdown.

Trump: ‘A tremendous amount of oil’

Donald Trump confirmed that substantial quantities of oil are now moving through the strait, telling Axios: “There is a tremendous amount of oil coming out of the Strait of Hormuz.”

But he insisted Washington was not currently negotiating with Tehran.

“They are wasting time. It's a waste of time to negotiate with them,” Trump said, while arguing that Iran still has some fight left but is “a shell of” its former strength.

The operation provides Washington with a significant strategic advantage: Hormuz may not be fully open, but America has demonstrated that it can keep a major portion of the world's oil moving anyway.

For Iran, that potentially removes one of its most powerful weapons in the economic war.

For global energy markets, it could be the difference between a prolonged oil crisis and a manageable disruption.

SOURCE

Half the volume before the war.

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