U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright stated this week that oil exports from the Middle East have rebounded to 15 million barrels per day, even exceeding the pre-war average of 20 million barrels per day on Sunday. However, ship tracking services and commodity analysts are puzzled by these figures, finding them difficult to reconcile with their observations of tanker loadings and traffic in the region. Ship tracking data indicates that oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz are at most half of the figures cited by Secretary Wright. Furthermore, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) also stated this week in its monthly Short-Term Energy Outlook that traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains "severely restricted" and is expected to continue to be so in August.