Tanker ships in the Gulf region continue to be targeted by various Iranian munitions including air and sea drones. Three tanker ships were hit today. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright appears on Fox News to discuss the issues with Iran and the decision to release oil from the SPR. WATCH:
WASHINGTON—U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright released the following statement regarding the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR):
“Earlier today, 32 member nations of the International Energy Agency unanimously agreed to President Trump’s request to lower energy prices with a coordinated release of 400 million barrels of oil and refined products from their respective reserves.
“As part of this effort, President Trump authorized the Department of Energy to release 172 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, beginning next week. This will take approximately 120 days to deliver based on planned discharge rates.
“President Trump promised to protect America’s energy security by managing the Strategic Petroleum Reserve responsibly and this action demonstrates his commitment to that promise. Unlike the previous administration, which left America’s oil reserves drained and damaged, the United States has arranged to more than replace these strategic reserves with approximately 200 million barrels within the next year—20% more barrels than will be drawn down—and at no cost to the taxpayer.
“For 47 years, Iran and its terrorist proxies have been intent on killing Americans. They have manipulated and threatened the energy security of America and its allies. Under President Trump, those days are coming to an end.
“Rest assured, America’s energy security is as strong as ever.”
UPDATE: 2 oil tankers are on fire after being attacked in the Persian Gulf off Iraq, according to Reuters. It's unclear who carried out the attack. pic.twitter.com/6pHBKn6zcv
— BNO News Live (@BNODesk) March 11, 2026
3 oil tankers have been separately hit by #IRGC explosive speed boats off the coast of #Basra, #Iraq tonight.
At least one of them is reportedly American-flagged. pic.twitter.com/dME3NQukSj
— Charles Lister (@Charles_Lister) March 11, 2026
Liar liar pats on fire, even so ships have been moving at will, check it frequently
So this punk wet behind the ears won’t be flapping his gums long
https://www.marinetraffic.org/HORMUZ%20STRAIT/ship-traffic-tracker
If you are referring to Chris Wright— he is not a lightweight. He is a hugely respected energy industry leader, formerly the CEO of oil and gas drilling company Liberty Energy. He is a WELL respected voice in the us energy idustry–a leading voice.
This is a very difficult time for the Administtration, and he has to be on the front line with caustic questions–even from the right– from people who are in the industry of making headlines and gotcha questions.
All that maritime traffic would make Marine Traffic Control at the Panama Canal Authority, very envious.
https://www.marinetraffic.org/PANAMA-CANAL/ship-traffic-tracker
Speaking of Panama….?
“As of now, there are no reports of any ships being detained just yet — but the threat just went out and could affect matters in future stops by Panamanian-flagged vessels at Chinese ports in the coming days or weeks….
Thousands of ships worldwide fly Panamanian flags under the Central American country’s flag of convenience program ”
China is a problem.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/03/11/exclusive-trump-administration-official-china-threatened-detain-panamanian-flagged-vessels/
I was just at the Panama Canal observing traffic in both the old and new locks. I remember seeing one cargo ship with at least three Chinese flags (and what looked like Chinese crew) on it’s sides and front but I have no idea what official flag it was flying on the mast. There was on oil tanker off in the eastern bay waiting to enter but was too far away to clearly see flags.
I am trying to understand what you mean by ships are moving at will. Do you mean through the Strait of Hormuz? Because as of yesterday that was not the case. Although the war risk insurance issue is largely settled, companies are still holding their ships back due to the physical risk. 100+ vessels normally transit the Strait daily, but right now that traffic is in the lower single digits.
Thanks for that link. Very interesting!
Sec. Wright did not look comfortable being put out there, he tried but to everyone’s dismay Laura actually followed up with some valid questions.
This is not a great look???
What valid questions were those … gee Mr. Secretary … why can’t anybody give us the exact date the operation will end?
The last question in the interview concerning the NY Times article sums up the approach by Iran and their cheering friends in the Media …. golly gee why did you guys trying to end Iran’s 50 year terror gig??
The Secretary did just fine and stayed in his lane.
If there is one topic point he needs to add is the BS that stopping or slowing tanker traffic in the Persian Gulf is and can be more than off-set by regional pipelines and supplies else where.
We are being had by the Financial Masters of the Global Corporation using the Bloody Macbeth head of Iran as their excuse.
Exactly…and they’ll ramp up the rhetoric in an attempt to shake PDJT. It won’t work, it’ll just tick off the Big Dog even more, then they’ll see what Our President is truly made of… Iron covered by Providence.
This Iranian take down is the crux aspect that’ll change the world…winning is critical, and by all accounts it is being done handily by the One Man and his Team – who know what they are doing. The fact that no one even tried over the last fifty years to end Iran’s terror run is appalling…but Dithering Politicians are the norm…and if The Founders ever reappeared to survey what it was they started – with very specific guardrails – heads would roll…literally.
By shutting off the strait and attacking their rich, oil producing neighbors, Iran just brought the full weight of the Middle East upon themselves. Now this becomes an Islam on Islam war.
Have you not read any of SD’s prior posts on PDJT putting regional players in charge of controlling the crazies in their regions?
Yup…and PDJT is doing it in spades to avoid long term involvement by us but in the short term drawing attention to him while moving the ME chess pieces into place to make that happen with neighboring nations. It is 4D chess brilliant because he knows Iranian 7th century throwbacks are predictable in their response tactics.
Camoerfixer and Football fan 33 Great response
have faith and believe that the President and his team are doing this for world peace
too many negative nillies
PDJT operates like this:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUq2sMlgdUC/?igsh=MW9lYmd0cnVwejRiMQ==
(Never watched Yellowstone much, but in this clip Sheridan encapsulates what a leader with vision, conviction, fortitude, can see BS from a mile away and cut right through it, looks like. This is very similar to Landman Tommy’s truth treatise on worthless windmills as ‘clean energy’…it’s all smoke-n-mirrors and slick marketing that pads the pockets of elite grifters. Costner’s Dutton is spot on in this scene.)
Rubio is going to have to be spokesperson for the DOE.
I just love it when the American Left teams with FAX “NEWS” to create fear porn.
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The current oil / gas price jump is a blip and will return to normalcy in less than a fortnight.
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All the large hedge funds that placed bets on energy prices now have their positions covered.
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I wonder if these kinds of financial interests are in ongoing contact with the regime in Iran to fire bottle rockets for a day or two.
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Pretty sure the Iranian IRGC and Democrats are in cahoots to hurt America….. in order to try and gain power again. That’s why the Democrats are so opposed to our interests…. Note how the UK (also in bed with Democrats) wasn’t interested in helping us either.
You know it!…every word you said. In the next few days there will be more ‘incidents’, and MadMommie will brush it off like he did with the Bucks County Isis Boys.
Just like the GOP, Dems and media work to stop the SAVE America Act which 85% of Americans want.
Yea verily, I thought Ingraham had a smirk on her face and was rude to cut him off midsentence. She looked absolutely furious that she even had to give a piece of her precious time.
Under Biden, the SPR was drained so low that it may not have been able to be refilled before the structure collapsed. Let us also never forget that under Biden and his love for DEI, there was a person with a “Q” clearance re the nuclear waste program who would steal women’s luggage at airports and dress up in them. Where was Laura Ingraham when that happened?
Will be thinking twice before I listen to Ingraham again. Starting to sound like Brennan.
I think she had reason to look furious. She gets him to come on her show to answer questions that we all have, because our President said he’d guarantee passage, and then this happens.
He has less than 5 minutes in his segment to provide information, reassurance, explanation, whatever.
Instead of responding to the question, he starts filibustering with a long history lesson that no one needs to hear again, wasting precious time in an obvious stall. That doesn’t serve Trump, us, or the show’s host.
And it doesn’t fill me with confidence. Most of the world’s powers and powerbrokers (plus the Intelligence establishment and at least a third of Republican senators) are against Trump. He is throwing monkey wrenches into their long-running machinery.
This Iran action needs a good, strong ending before mid-terms. Many MAGA feel that if DJT can’t keep us out of another war, then voting is a waste of time and effort.
Agree. PDJT said we would escort tankers, and now we aren’t. That’s breaking your word.
Of course, if it’s too dangerous to escort tankers it’s because there is a fear that our USN ships would be hit.
This isn’t hard math. USN ships being sunk by Iran would be a huge propaganda boost for the baddies.
So, PDJT says we will escort, but then doesn’t. Not a great look.
I understand why, but don’t say it and back out.
Bring out more destroyers outfitted with lasers. Or do we have only one?
Re-deploy bombing runs to the areas launching the attacks.
It’s not that simple. Team Red in this instance has the advantage(currently).
The narrowest point the SOH is just over 20 miles wide. In this channel there is a 6 mile wide safe navigable pathway. Within this 6 mile wide path there are two, 2 mile wide shipping lanes, separated by a 2 mile buffer in the center. It may sound like a lot, but it isn’t.
You don’t need fancy missile hardware or mines, to cause chaos. Even a cheap fiber optic guided drones can easily reach it(shipping lanes), and pose serios risks. Plus, these types of drones are obviously unjammable, so your only options are to shoot it down, or take the hit. Cargo skippers are generally not risk takers, and risking a hit to your bridge, will rain on anyone’s parade.
This situation will change, but it will take more time.
Escorting ships is what we did with the re-flagged Kuwaiti tankers back in the 80s. But since then Iran’s capabilities have increased, while ours have decreased (peace dividend and all that). The four minesweepers that were based in Bahrain were decommissioned and just delivered back in Philly last week. We still have the remaining four sweeps in Sasebo, Japan.
In theory, the three LCS ships in the Gulf are configured for mine hunting. How well that works out is at this point a guess. In the past the USS Princeton and USS Tripoli acted as unplanned “mine sweepers”.
My favorite aspect of this whole thing is how Americans, most who can’t name their own Rep in Congress or how any markets work are all now experts in oil commodities and the Straight of Hormuz shipping lanes.
Maybe they can’t name their rep, but they can read a price sign at the pump.
What I find astounding is that people from all over the world, including people here have forgotten that the price for a gallon of gas was anywhere from 4-8/10 dollars a gallon, up until the time that President Trump got back into the White House. Now, here we are, we might have to do that again for a little while BUT… IRAN, the number one sponsor for death and destruction WORLDWIDE is being DESTROYED!!! For almost 50 years, all Iran had to do was wiggle its little finger and the whole world trembled. People, not only Christians and Jews are being slaughtered for no reason other than that they’re not willing to comply with Iranian beliefs. So things might get a little inconvenient again… How convenient do you think things would be right now if Kamala had gotten into the White House?! With absolutely no end to the ruin in sight.
This is how these hoped-for short “wars” get legs. (Speaking of the pesky strikes on the oil tankers.) Tit-for-tat that keeps escalating.
Kharg island terminal is just a short hop away. Why not light up one of their 30+ VLCC’s that has just left the terminal for a China bound round trip. Tit-for-tat indeed.
OK, we are going to take out 179 million barrels over a 6 month period now and replace 200 million barrels later and it won’t cost the taxpayer anything? What if the price of oil is double six months from now? Were we filling the reserve back since President Trump was elected?
So .. because those poor Mullahs loose their livelihood being unable terrorize …. and golly oil may still be expensive … and … and .. and … just let them terrorize and be happy.
That is 179/6 = about 30/month over 6 months and rate can be slowed at any time. All 179 million barrels are NOT being released in a single month.
Release of Oil is not a free give away it is a “selling off” as in revenue stream … so the cost to the tax payer is what???
To you last question, Pres. Trump remarked off-handedly in the last 24 hours that, no, they hadn’t yet begun refilling the SPR but they were gonna get to it.
Posted in reply above to @JustaGuyNamedBob. Did you see what Biden did? Just before his selection, he (well somebody) decided the best way to bring gas prices down was by sucking the SPR down so low that the structure might have collapsed.
President Trump spoke about this prior to re-election. And yes, I believe that is has been in the process of being refilled. I cannot answer your monetary/cost questions.
POTUS signed an EO to refill the reserve in term one in which the Dems and Uniparty staffers blocked it.
Taking from Strategic Reserve is the kind of thing Biden did, to cover Green and inflationary policies.
This spike should be short-term, and are we that desperate that we need to take from also? Just because gasoline is 20-50 cents up temporarily?
It’s not a good look.
The markets are a lot smarter than the fake media gives them credit. While oil is up 40% since the start of the Iran conflict, energy stocks are barely up 2-3%.
Kind of hard for them to be up when their large stakes in the ME are at risk of being marked to zero
I don’t think “the markets” are all that smart.
I thought their ability to successfully attack shipping was by this point, destroyed.
What’s the full story at this point ?
I think the term was “obliterated.” The Iranian Navy was supposedly literally sunk, but I think the issue now is hard to detect weaponized drones.
The guard has 100’s if not thousands of smaller speed boats.
Starting to look like Trump’s exit strategy keeps shifting. Not sure we can exit at this point.
Sic the A-10’s on them.
Nukes
Take plenty of pictures…………………
…..and attach them to the sternly worded letter!
You don’t need a navy at all to disrupt shipping in the SOH.
Key point, there is the “navy”, and then the IRGC. Two different entities. Plus I don’t know that the various drones are “navy”.
The full story is this is day twelve of a very long war.
Iran has a lot of missiles, and drones, none of which are particularly impressive. They just have a lot of them. China and Russia are actively giving them target info similar to what we do for Ukraine.
If we decide to send US naval ships into the Strait as escorts we will find out if Russia really has sold them hyper sonic missiles or not. My understanding is that both US and Israeli intelligence believe that Russia has never sold these to Iran and Iran is bluffing.
You have absolutely nothing to back up what you assert. In my book that is pure speculation….of coarse other more earthy terms also apply…..
What part of what he said do you not believe is possible?
I’ve read from other sources about Russia and China assisting with targeting.
Same thing about Iran’s claim of the hypersonic missiles.
Most of this thread is speculation based on distortions (media).
@havivrettiggur
America went to war in Iran because Iran made itself a Chinese weapon. I explain in detail in my piece in
@TheFP
. America didn’t need to do this — to invest so much political capital and military firepower — just to shore up a second-run Israeli operation, nor is it reasonable to believe, as Secretary Rubio claimed, that it’s all because of potential Iranian counter-strikes against US forces.
Months of American buildup, America setting the timing and pulling the trigger on the operation, and the growing and increasingly dangerous strategic ties between Iran and China for America’s ability to face down its chief adversary in the Pacific — these are all evidence that this was an American decision, and that Israel is playing second fiddle this time around.
There are now two wars underway in Iran, not one:
The longstanding Israel-Iran war playing out on the regional chessboard, and the much larger US-China confrontation on the global chessboard. They overlap significantly in terms of the two nations’ banks of targets in Iran — but that overlap may not hold to the end.
Two wars, not one. If you can only see one of them, you’ll misunderstand what’s happening now and what happens next. — This Isn’t Israel’s War. It’s America’s.
https://nitter.net/havivrettiggur/status/2028937246557237358
Or has Iran created their own?
Looking at the Black Sea, the problem is surface or semi submersible unmanned systems more than ballistic missiles.
I guess you thought wrong? It happens to the best of us.
We apparently don’t have the air and sea supremacy that PDJT is claiming. If we did, we would be running escort. I am tiring of the BS. And it’s not a good look for my beloved PDJT. Saying one thing, and the obvious opposite is right there on video….Its the first time I’ve ever doubted this man
It reflects more on military intelligence than on PT. Bad info in, bad info out. Sure he’s not happy with bad intel. Phfog of war.
It raises another question: Is China CCP delivering munitions to Iran through the back door? Drones? Missiles? What and how much? Has the back door been closed? How do we know?
Never forget that Laura Ingraham, and most of Fox HATES Donald Trump. And would LOVE to have him defanged, neutered and run out of office (and into prison) in order to replace him with a Rino, any Rino.
They’re licking their chops right now. And will be among the first to cry crocodile tears the next moment that presents where they can lament the lost opportunity voters gave him with a second term.
This should always be taken into account when viewing the RINO National Committee’s media platform. Any personality. Including Levin, Bartiromo, Hannity, ALL of them. Never Forget November, 2020 and January, 2021!! True colors!
Faux news needs crumbling Sad das network
And remember his first appearance on Fox after he was banned, like 6-8 months later, was on Bartiromo’s show. He wasn’t allowed to talk about the stolen election, it was powderpuff chatter “how do you feel, what did you eat today stuff” until she got him set up for the OWS “vaccine” plug. That’s the only reason they welcomed him back, for that “get your vax” promo. Stayed like that the next two years. Never forget Fake Fox & Friends!
OWS?
Operation Warp Speed, which was the brainchild of this guy (he was eventually fired by RFK Jr.).
Mt. Vernon,
Are you a BOT? Or just a Democrat?
Is he supposed to be a Fox News cheerleader?
Break time!
Thank you!
Fox News, is poison.
Why the rubes still watch Fox and give the big ratings is beyond me.
No, she doesn’t hate him but she’s just an unpleasant person.
Bartiromo is generally pro-Trump.
FakeFriend.
common core math calculation…..heh heh.. How many days would it take to exhaust 400 million barrels of oil in the world’s strategic petroleum reserves when somewhere between 10 million to 14 million barrels of crude oil per day are blocked at the Strait of Hormuz. Guesstimates withheld because some people just can’t handle the truth. Suffice it to say things can get a lot worse real quick. Put a tiger in your tank and go back to sleep. Bwhaa the siphonists are coming.
This first comment by Sec. Wright will hold H2O for one more week.
7 months. I hate to say it but most folks are sheep and wouldn’t know if the wolf was standing next to them.
My sis is like this and watches all these myriad shows on legacy with the names FBI, JAG, WTF!
If this isn’t wrapped up within 3-4 weeks with gas prices dropping even a little things get problematic.
I am not in the least worried about us. The awesome MAGA base is only growing stronger everyday.
Sorry for the volcanic vent but let’s light a fusion explosion under Thune and all of our Senators.
Oh yes. GOD bless the USA!
I’m just thankful that we don’t have any pressing problems in our own country that would preclude us from bearing the burden of doing Israel’s bidding.
We’re so lucky. 😒
All Iran can do is chickenshit terrorist attacks. That’s all they have ever been able to do. They are proving that Trump made the right move in dismantling their ability to arm up for bigger terror attacks. Kill them all and all of their garbage followers as quickly as possible.
Thank you!
If people approve of this war, they should have no problem paying a little more for gasoline, or even quite a bit. more.
Where is the patriotism ?
Getting upset over the loss of life would be more Christian.
Where is the Christianity ?
The only person who ever practiced Christianity perfectly was Christ himself. Unless you are a Christian and are arguing that Christian’s ought to be perfectly passive in all situations, then there question of when violence is ok and to what extent comes into play.
And for the record, every lost life matters.
Rare interview with Ali Khameini after the Shah was overthrown..
He HATES the West
Unrest inside Iran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution | 60 Minutes Australia
“Who is your worst enemy?”
AMERICA
The first big ship that gets crushed by a hyper….this thing is going nuclear
.PDJT doesn’t play. He wins.
We aren’t putting the boots in until the Mullahs are eliminated.
So, that means nukes
We don’t need nukes, which would be foolish to use in this situation.
47 year ago I thought the same thing, just turn Iran into one big glowing slab of green glass. But in today’s world, there are a number of nations who have itchy trigger fingers and one launch will be all it takes to justify them pulling said triggers.
The more realistic approach is to put enough small arms and RPGs in the hands of the people to bring down the current regime. And as sure as God made little green apples, Israeli operatives are most likely within Iran that will be able to help them along.
Sooner or later it will come down to Iranians doing the heavy lifting on the ground if they really want their freedom back.
I have to agree. The real threat was never the Iranian Navy or Air Force. It has always been the Army and specifically the IRGC. And the army is not clustered on easy-to-attack bases, but dispersed throughout the civilian population for maximum damage and terror. Hitting them from the air or with missiles is not feasible. The Iranian people must handle this part themselves.
And make areas uninhabitable for 100 years? Shut of the Strait for dozens of years?
Are you gonna nuke millions of innocent people, dozens of locations?
Insanity talk.
We have MOAB Bombs, MOAB 2.0, etc at our disposal. Deploy more destroyers with defensive lasers (for drones).
When will the Iranian people rise up to take out the Mullahs foot soldiers?
Not to be contrarian, but we have nuked innocent people before. Not millions , but hundreds of thousands of people.
We nuked Japan twice in 1945 and they’ve been our friends and allies ever since.
There is some precedence.
“nuked innocent people before”? Maybe you would like to explain this? The problem is, we have moved so far away from the tactics of let’s just say, the Civil War and WWI and II, that we get these kind of responses.
If you must know, the fire bombing of Tokyo called more people than the two atomic bombs. Please, feel free to look it up. And saying that the United States nuked innocent people before is absolutely incorrect. I would not call the people of imperial Japan innocent. Maybe you also should look up how many casualties that the US would have suffered with a ground invasion of Japan. I will let you know between a half a million and a million casualties.
I didn’t say I had a problem with nuking Japan in August 1945. And yes, I’m well aware that Curtis Lemay’s repeated firebombings of Tokyo and other cities killed more people than at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
When I say there’s precedent for America nuking innocent people, would you not categorize the women and children of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as innocent civilians?
Or, the populations in the Marshall Islands affected by our nuclear testing, or Americans affected by all the nukes we exploded within the contiguous United States? These had huge effects on all the populations living downwind. Global implications. Look up how many nuclear devices we and other countries have exploded.
Not saying we are the bad guys or didn’t do what we had to do, only that the nuclear option is not as out of the realm of possibility as people think.
no, President Trump will not nuke anyone. First, he’s very conscience of people and there are many who are innocent not to mention wanting freedom. That was part of his goal, to help them. Second, nuke destroys land as well as people. I’d say they are looking for the heads who are keeping things going. Evidently they are military, etc. It will happen when the heads are found.
We don’t Lindsey Graham creaming his frilly pink panties any more.
I see we deployed a new defensive weapon, a destroyer with a LASER to shoot drones put of the sky. (We were expected not to use this for ten more years.)
This partly solves the problem of spending $5-8 million to shoot a $10,000 drone out of the air. The laser costs are a fraction of that (energy).
WHY NOT DEPLOY MORE DESTROYERS WITH LASERS?
Not likely to see that HELIOS system fit onto the newer Flight III Arleigh Burkes in the short term. They would not have a lot of spare generating capacity without removing other systems and/or using much more aggressive power management.
It is telling that the first was installed onto USS Preble (DDG-88) a Flight IIA Arleigh Burke.
A newer class design, say like the DDG(X) or the BBG(X) would be finalized with that in mind as part of a standard systems load out.
Preble was rotated to a new homeport in Yoko, Japan. Could be they wanted the Laser in 7th Fleet for some testing, though normally we would probably prefer a San Diego ship to be near the test ranges. The artist render for BBG-1 does show directed energy weapon topside.
Mainly because they were not supposed to be battlefield ready this early. Whole articles you can look up.
FAITH
Amen and AMEN ✝️🙏
“It’s unclear who carried out the attack”?
Clearly the operation was done by a team of Mossad operatives disguised as IRGC. Because Israel wants to hurt the Gulf States and is waging a proxy war via Iran.
Don’t believe me? Then you have done an antisemitism.
(For readers in Rio Linda, that was satire)