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Secretary Chris Wright Discusses Iran Strikes and Hormuz Oil Flows on ABC's This Week

July 19, 2026 · U.S. Department of Energy · 0:06:46

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What happened

ABC’s This Week noted U.S. forces had struck Iran for an eighth consecutive night and asked Energy Secretary Chris Wright whether the president planned any further response to the killing of two American soldiers. Wright said the president’s mission is fundamental to peace in the Middle East and the world: preventing Iran from possessing nuclear weapons and undermining its ability to terrorize its neighbors, the world, and international trade, and that the mission would continue until accomplished, as he stated it. He said the loss of American lives was sad but that the mission would save countless lives in the future, according to the interview.

Pressed on his March statement that the conflict would end within weeks, Wright said the plan was for military operations of four to six weeks, that they ran five and a half weeks, and that the U.S. then paused to try to reach an agreement allowing oil to flow without attack — but Iran showed unwillingness, so the strategy changed. The U.S. now works to ensure oil, gas, and other products flow through the Strait of Hormuz with or without Iranian cooperation, while continuing to degrade Iran’s offensive military capabilities, and President Trump always seeks a diplomatic exit and wants to end the conflict with a peace agreement with Iran, though that takes two parties, Wright said.

Challenged that shipping through Hormuz had effectively stopped, Wright said that was absolutely not the case and that he receives the data daily: the seven-day average flow was just under 7 million barrels a day through the waterway, plus just under another 7 million barrels a day through bypass pipelines — just under 14 million barrels a day from the Arabian Gulf region, which he said is two-thirds of pre-conflict traffic and a big increase from March, though not yet 100%, according to Wright.

Why it matters

Wright’s figures are the administration’s public evidence that energy flows through Hormuz continue despite the Iran conflict — the factual core of its argument that the campaign is not choking world oil supply.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard watch: Wright’s stated Hormuz throughput — just under 14 million barrels a day combined through the strait and bypass pipelines, about two-thirds of pre-conflict traffic, as he stated it on July 19, 2026 — is a dated, checkable claim flagged for the scoreboard editor.

Sources: U.S. Department of Energy, “Secretary Wright Joins ABC News’s This Week With George Stephanopoulos - July 19, 2026”, 2026-07-19 (official upload, embedded above; published 2026-07-19). Transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, not republished). All figures and characterizations as stated by the speakers.