US Central Command says it controls Strait of Hormuz, escorted 19M barrels of oil

The competing claims over the Strait of Hormuz matter less as military posturing than as a signal about the risk premium embedded in energy and shipping markets. The volume of crude moved under escort illustrates how dependent Gulf exports remain on external security guarantees, while the IRGC's threat keeps the tail risk of disruption live. The open question is whether escort operations become routine enough to normalise flows, or whether each exchange hardens the perception of the strait as a contested chokepoint.