US VP Vance says about 15mln barrels of oil went through Strait of Hormuz yesterday

Comments of this kind from senior US officials about Hormuz throughput are typically aimed at reassuring crude markets that the chokepoint remains open, and the framing here, citing a specific day's volume, fits the established pattern of Washington publicly quantifying flows during periods of elevated tension with Iran or its proxies. The distinction that matters is between rhetoric and the physical channel: what has historically moved the front of the crude curve and tanker and insurance rates is not official reassurance but evidence of actual interference, whether seizures, harassment, or a change in war-risk premia quoted by underwriters. A figure implying flows are running is, on its face, a statement that the disruption scenario has not yet materialised, and markets have tended to fade such commentary quickly unless freight rates, vessel tracking, or Gulf loading schedules corroborate a squeeze. Worth noting that officials have form for talking down risk premia precisely when those premia are building, so the tell is divergence between the reassurance and the shipping data. The follow-ons are any Iranian response, US naval posture in the Gulf, and whether benchmark structure holds its geopolitical bid into the next session.