Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Thursday that he would be reviewing all of the agency’s social media posts after an incident in which his professional X account sent out a market-moving false report of an oil tanker being escorted through the Strait of Hormuz.
In the now-deleted post, Wright said that his department was working to “ensure oil remains flowing to global markets.”
The news triggered a wave of market volatility and a massive drop in oil futures, which have struggled to rebound even after the X post was deleted minutes later.
The Strait of Hormuz is a key channel near Iran through which about one-fifth of the world’s oil flows. Since President Donald Trump late last month announced strikes on Iran, gas prices have soared for nearly two weeks straight.
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In an interview Thursday on Fox News, Wright apologized and said he would be taking decisive action to make sure a similar error does not happen in the future.
“As the secretary of energy, what have you done to make sure that that doesn’t happen again? Are you going to personally approve those posts?” Fox News’ Dana Perino asked.
“Yes, I will,” Wright responded. “Yeah, that is a miscommunication in our department. I take full ownership of that as the person in charge of the department — very unfortunate, it will not happen again.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday implied that the White House was also taken off guard by the post.
“I was made aware of this post. I haven’t had a chance to talk to the energy secretary about it directly. However, I know the post was taken down pretty quickly, and I can confirm that the U.S. Navy has not escorted a tanker or a vessel at this time,” Leavitt said at a White House press briefing.
Trump said on Wednesday that the Strait of Hormuz was “in great shape,” but Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, on Thursday asserted that the waterway would remain closed until the war ends.
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