As we reported earlier, President Donald Trump said the U.S. would take control of the Strait of Hormuz, clear mines, and then it would be open. CENTCOM laid out more details that they would be blocking ships from leaving Iranian ports.
So Trump is effectively telling the Iranians, "Your effort to overplay your one hand with the Strait is over." If he blocks their ships from getting through, they have a big problem when they're already in economic trouble.
If he opens the Strait up for other nations' ships and has other nations assisting, Iran is going to have a hard time dealing with that as well. Yes, they can try to attack with missiles, drones, or small fast attack boats, but they will also now have to deal with the U.S. military. And if they attack any other nation's ships, they also risk drawing more nations into the action against them.
Blocking Iran's ships is going to hold them over the barrel and cripple them. They can't maintain control against the U.S. and/or other nations taking firm action. If the U.S. blocks Iranian ships, we can hurt them without having to do something like hit Kharg Island. It will put more pressure on them to come back and concede in negotiations.
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The funny thing was that Iran messed around with the ships in the Strait to back the U.S. off from military operations. But they still don't get that they're not dealing with the weak Joe Biden or their buddy Barack Obama, who is willing to make deals that end up propping them up.
But instead, between that and the attacks on their Gulf neighbors, it's made their neighbors more convinced that Iran needs to be stopped and made them align more with the U.S.
The fighting and Iran's manic response, threatening and attacking its neighbors, has also made the world more convinced that it needs to invest and expand in options to bypass the Strait, so it can't be used as a chokehold again.
We've seen the Saudis, for example, stepping up their production with the East-West pipeline. Iran attacked a couple of days ago, but it is already up and going again at full capacity.
The United Arab Emirates also built a bypass route with the Habshan-Fujairah pipeline that can handle 1.5 million barrels per day from Abu Dhabi directly to the Gulf of Oman, and tankers can load outside the Strait.
There's another alternate avenue as well that you may not know about, and Trump commented on it.
🚨 DONALD TRUMP JUST STUNNED THE WORLD
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) April 12, 2026
Suddenly, oil and gas tankers want to RUSH to the US to fill up on energy. Look at the Gulf of America!
It's almost like 47 had a plan this entire time 🔥
"Boats are sailing up, heading to OUR country, big, beautiful tankers — we're… pic.twitter.com/xRFt22LuOi
Yes, it's real. Trump also retweeted this.
Very cool seeing the wave of empty tankers heading to the US to pick up some desperately needed crude for Hormuz-starved markets.
— Rory Johnston (@Rory_Johnston) April 10, 2026
All the tankers on the map below are empty VLCCs (~2 million barrel capacity each) currently heading for the US Gulf Coast. https://t.co/lU7GCy7olm pic.twitter.com/I7QidvD0Rz
US crude exports are projected to hit a record high in April as Asian customers hunt for supplies to replace Middle Eastern oil lost because of the Iran war.
Oil research group Kpler estimates exports will jump by almost a third to 5.2mn barrels per day this month, up from 3.9mn b/d in March. Demand from Asian customers will rise by 82 per cent to 2.5mn b/d.
There are currently 68 empty tankers on their way to the US, according to Kpler, compared to 24 in the week before the war began on February 28. Last year the average was 27 tankers. Kpler bases its data on tanker bookings and expected arrivals.
“An armada of tankers are heading this way,” said Matt Smith, a Kpler analyst.
Now, all of that is not a complete replacement for the Strait traffic. But it's increasing the importance of the U.S. export role while diminishing the bad actor Iran, just as Trump did with Venezuela. Almost as if there was a lot of thought going on behind all of this.
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For those who might wonder why we would be exporting that oil, we export "sweet" oil because most of our refineries are set up to process heavy sour oil.
So not only has Iran had its military destroyed and had its leaders eliminated, but because they've overplayed their hand, they're now in the process of losing that one strategic advantage that they may have had with the Strait.
