A U.S. official said the U.S. military and Gulf countries have begun conducting daytime transits of tankers through the strait and not only night time as was the case in recent month, reports Axios

Escorted tanker transits through the strait are the standard playbook when Gulf shipping risk spikes: in prior episodes of tanker seizures, mine attacks or Iranian harassment, the response has followed a familiar sequence of naval convoying, elevated war-risk insurance premia, and a gradual normalisation of transit patterns once escorts prove effective. The shift from night-only to daytime transits reads as a confidence signal, suggesting the escort arrangement is functioning and that the interdiction threat is judged to have receded, rather than a change in the underlying confrontation. The actors matter here: the U.S. Fifth Fleet has run such operations before, and Gulf state participation indicates regional buy-in rather than a unilateral show of force. The transmission channel runs through freight rates, war-risk premia and the prompt crude structure rather than outright supply, since the strait itself has remained open throughout past episodes of this kind. What is worth watching is whether daytime transits become routine without incident, whether insurance pricing follows the operational signal lower, and any Iranian response, since harassment of escorted convoys has historically been the trigger for the next leg of escalation. As a de-escalatory signal sourced to a single official via a media report, confirmation from shipping data and additional official comment is the natural follow-on.