The Strait of Hormuz is back open for business, more or less. Following a US military operation and a temporary peace agreement with Iran, oil flows through the critical waterway have climbed back above 10 million barrels per day, recovering a significant portion of the volume that evaporated when tensions escalated earlier this year.
The numbers tell the story. Before conflict disrupted shipping in late February 2026, the strait was moving roughly 20 million barrels per day. That figure collapsed. Now, thanks to a combination of military escorts and diplomatic maneuvering, flows are clawing their way back toward those pre-conflict levels.
What the US military actually did
On June 10, 2026, President Trump announced that the US military had completed what he called a “secret mission” to protect commercial shipping through the strait. The operation, by Trump’s account, allowed more than 200 commercial vessels and over 100 million barrels of oil to transit safely in the preceding month.
That works out to roughly 3.3 million barrels per day during that window, which is meaningful but still well below pre-conflict norms.
