US Energy Secretary Wright: Gulf oil shipments back to 80% of pre-conflict level

The 80% recovery headline masks the more consequential detail: refined products, not crude, remain the binding constraint, and diesel and jet fuel are the grades most directly tied to freight, aviation and industrial input costs. Wright's push on European diesel reserves signals that Gulf flows alone are not expected to close the gap, and the pace of allied stock releases is now a variable in its own right. His expectation of steadily falling energy prices is a forecast, not an observation, and whether product supply normalizes fast enough to validate it is the open question worth tracking.