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Wright on CNBC From Pennsylvania: The 20 Percent Hormuz Fee Is Off the Table

July 14, 2026 · U.S. Department of Energy · 0:06:33

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

Energy Secretary Chris Wright spoke with CNBC’s Morgan Brennan at the Pennsylvania Defense and Innovation Summit on July 14, 2026, according to the Department of Energy’s recording, rendered in Arabic-rendered auto-captions and paraphrased here. Asked about the blockade of Iranian ports and the floated 20 percent fee on shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, Wright said the fee is off the table and will not happen. He said President Trump had floated the idea to make the point that the United States has long borne the burden of securing the strait for the whole world, and that the discussion produced the right answer on burden-sharing, as he described the episode.

Wright said the U.S. military is the main factor keeping energy flowing from the Arabian Gulf and that flows over the previous two days were in line with the seven-day average: slightly under 10 million barrels a day through the strait, and about 15 million barrels a day out of the Gulf once pipeline volumes are added, against 20 million a day before the conflict. He said production growth elsewhere in the world means the world is reasonably supplied with oil at the moment, with Brent at about $85 and West Texas Intermediate around $80 as the host cited.

On refining, Wright said U.S. refineries are running at record levels, which he called more important than crude production growth, and that high diesel and gasoline margins reflect a refining market tighter than the crude market after refiners cut runs when crude flows slowed. He said stockpiles drawn down during the crisis, including from strategic reserves, will be rebuilt over the coming years, adding demand, and noted that countries such as India and the United Kingdom hold no significant petroleum reserves and may build them. On Russia, he said Ukraine’s campaign has taken Russian refining capacity offline, Russia has just banned diesel exports, and Russian diesel volumes have shrunk to zero, removing supply from world markets, as he described the picture.

Why it matters

Killing the Hormuz fee idea on camera closes a trial balloon that had unsettled shipping markets, and Wright’s explanation of it as a burden-sharing message is the administration’s clearest statement of how the strait’s security costs should be shared.

Sources: U.S. Department of Energy, “Secretary Wright Joins CNBC from Pennsylvania Defense & Innovation Summit — July 14, 2026”, 2026-07-14 (official upload, embedded above; published 2026-07-14). Transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, not republished). All figures and characterizations as stated by the speakers.