Iranian fleet halts Strait of Hormuz traffic
May 14, 2026
Energy markets are trading slightly down here this morning as the news is relatively quiet. Several headlines about the meeting between the US and China. The market has been extremely volatile so a bit of a lull or rest might be in order even though there are still plenty of risks to these markets as the war with Iran and the Strait of Hormuz being closed has not change.
A large group of small Iranian attack boats were used to essentially bring the movement in the Strait of Hormuz to a halt. President Trump said that Iranian Navy had been wiped out. That may be true for the large vessels, but there still are these small crafts manned by crews willing to cause disruptions in the Strait. Reports indicated that 30 some ships have move through the Strait in the last few days and several of these were Chinese flagged vessels.
Yesterday’s DOE weekly inventory report had crude oi supplies down 4.3 million barrels, gasoline down 4.1 million barrels, and distillates up 190,000 barrels.
LSEG and Kpler ship tracking data showed that a Chinese supertanker carrying two million barrels of Iraqi crude sailed through the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday after being stranded in the Gulf for more than two months due to the US-Iran war.
Propane inventories were up 3.590 million barrels to a total of 81.146 million barrels. Midwest supplies were up 1.095 million barrels to a total of 17.331 million. Gulf Coast supplies were up 1.433 million barrels putting total Gulf supplies at 56.031 million. US production was up over 3 million bpd at 3.011 million barrels per day.