Greek-owned supertankers are turning off their tracking signals and crossing the Strait of Hormuz at night under U.S. mi...

Greek-owned supertankers are turning off their tracking signals and crossing the Strait of Hormuz at night under U.S. military escort, according to a CNN investigation. The operation, known as "dark transits," is how Gulf oil producers are keeping crude flowing to global markets despite the threat of Iranian drone attacks. The scale is staggering. Tracking firm Kpler reports that roughly 80% of all vessel traffic through the Strait of Hormuz over the past two weeks has been operating in dark mode, hugging the Omani coastline as far from Iran as possible. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that 8 to 9 million barrels of oil are still passing through the strait daily, nearly double what analysts on Wall Street had assumed based on available ship-tracking data. CNN documented the operation in detail, tracing one Greek-owned VLCC, a supertanker over 300 meters long, as it loaded crude at Qatar's Mesaieed terminal on July 25, then crossed the Strait of Hormuz with its AIS transponder switched off on July 31. Its signal reappeared the following morning on the other side of the strait. In just two days, CNN observed more than twelve ship-to-ship oil transfers in the Gulf of Oman, with cargoes continuing to China, Taiwan, South Korea, and Vietnam. Oil companies from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, and the UAE are chartering these vessels, with the operation effectively transferring the enormous insurance and security risk from ordinary commercial shippers onto the oil producers themselves and, through the U.S. military umbrella, onto Washington. Saudi Arabia has also rerouted around 5 million barrels per day through its East-West pipeline to the Red Sea port of Yanbu, bypassing the strait entirely. The system is holding for now, but it is under strain. Global oil reserves have drawn down by as much as 1.9 billion barrels since the war began, the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve has released 400 million barrels into the market, and refining capacity worldwide is under serious pressure. Oil is approaching $100 per barrel again. The Greek shipping fleet, the world's largest, is sitting at the center of one of the most consequential energy operations on the planet...