Vice President JD Vance is highlighting what he says is a major breakthrough in the battle to keep energy moving through the Strait of Hormuz, claiming that U.S.-supported operations have moved as much as 15 million barrels of oil on some days. “A lot of people aren’t covering this,” Vance said, emphasizing that the United States has been able to get extraordinary volumes of energy out despite Iran’s attempts to disrupt the waterway. His argument is that the continued movement of oil is weakening Tehran’s ability to use Hormuz as an economic weapon.

The figure is especially significant because roughly 15 million barrels of crude oil per day moved through the Strait before the conflict, according to energy-market analyses. Recent U.S. officials cited by Axios said the average volume being transported through a U.S.-supported southern shipping corridor has been closer to 10 million barrels a day, while some individual nights saw 15 million to 20 million barrels move out of the Gulf. That suggests Vance’s claim refers to peak daily movements rather than a sustained average at that level.

The strategy depends heavily on keeping commercial tankers moving through a southern route closer to Omani waters, where U.S. forces have established a shipping corridor designed to reduce exposure to Iranian threats. According to U.S. officials cited by Axios, roughly 15 to 20 tankers have been entering and exiting the strait during nightly operations, allowing millions of barrels to reach international markets even while normal shipping patterns remain severely disrupted. The operation represents a significant effort to prevent the conflict from producing an even larger global energy shock.

Vance’s broader message is that Iran may not possess the ability to completely shut down global energy commerce through Hormuz, even if Tehran can disrupt or threaten conventional shipping. That distinction matters because the waterway is one of the world’s most important energy chokepoints, with about 15 million barrels of crude historically passing through it each day. At the same time, Gulf producers are investing in pipelines and alternative export routes precisely because the conflict has demonstrated how vulnerable the region remains to disruption at Hormuz.

The administration’s longer-term strategy could become even more consequential if planned pipeline projects are completed, allowing more Gulf oil to bypass the Strait altogether. Vance is effectively arguing that a combination of U.S. military protection, commercial shipping and new infrastructure can strip Iran of much of the leverage it has traditionally gained from the waterway. The question now is whether these temporary workarounds can evolve into a durable energy network that makes Tehran’s ability to threaten global oil supplies far less powerful than it once was.