WTI: $89.50 Friday Escorts Tape Meets Thursday's Near-$91 Hormuz Dispute

West Texas Intermediate trades around $89.50 a barrel during Asian hours on Friday. That is the Friday escorts stamp. The same page says US forces escorted 40 commercial vessels carrying roughly 18 million barrels through Hormuz on Tuesday (CNN / two US officials). Escorts are live color on this tape.

Thursday’s stamps stay separate

A separate Thursday Asian stamp had WTI around $89.60. Later Thursday, WTI hit session highs a few cents below $91.00, almost 10% up on the week. Those Thursday prints are quoted separately from Friday’s $89.50.

Wright / Bessent 17mb vs Kpler five ships — the tension

The near-$91 page says US Energy Secretary Chris Wright affirmed more than 17 million barrels crossed Hormuz on Monday. Bessent, on the Thursday Asia stamp, also cited 17 million barrels through the strait that day. Kpler traffic monitoring on the same near-$91 page reported only five ships crossing Monday — a sharp drop versus the pre-war average of about 130 ships. Those flow claims are quoted as a dispute.

Hormuz is not reopened. US–Iran hostilities and Israeli threat language still constrain how far oil can fall. EIA commercial crude stocks fell 4.45 million barrels in the last week of August versus a 1.1 million draw expected — inventory color on the near-$91 stamp.

Informational only. Not trading advice, signals, or a guarantee of any market outcome.