Middle East oil exports rebound to 80% of prewar levels

It's also an expensive method, by the way. I don't want to say that everything is hunky dory. Oil is still very expensive, refined products extremely expensive, but the numbers could be much worse. And by the way, here's another number that matters. How much Iranian oil is getting out of the Strait? Zero. Which is because of the blockade.

AARON MACLEAN:

00:02:18

That's right. Which is still ongoing. I got two questions for you, one on this and then one on the US forces leaving Iraq, which we'll talk about later in the show. So on the question of these vessels and the numbers and the movement-- I forgot my train of thought on this one. I'm going to get to Iraq. We're moving out of Iraq. Tell me about that. So this is pretty significant. Viewers may wonder, didn't we already move out of Iraq? This is the second phase. Yes, this is the ISIS phase. That's right. So 2011, we left Iraq. 2014, we went back to fight ISIS. At its peak, the ISIS caliphate controlled an enormous part of Iraq and Syria combined here. I mean, it's a very, very substantial piece of terrain. The United States went back in 2014 and whittled away at all these different areas. There was an enormous Battle of Mosul as well, Battle of Raqqa. This terrain shrank and shrank and shrank. American forces came out of Syria in the spring. They're now out of Iraq.

MAJOR GARRETT:

00:03:10

I remember what I was going to ask you about. Go back to the other map.

AARON MACLEAN:

00:03:13

You got it. I'm flexible. And because my memory comes and goes. We talked about a couple of weeks ago, this East-West Pipeline being attacked by Houthis. is it still damaged? Not operational? How does that fit into this equation? Still damaged but now operational. So this pipeline runs basically straight across the Saudi Arabia, across the Arabian Peninsula, east to west. Houthi attacks, interestingly enough, which seem to have originated in Iraq, which, by the way, is relevant to this question of withdrawing troops from Iraq, struck the pipeline, took it down completely there for several days. Reports indicate that it's back up and running. The claim from Central Command is the amount of gas-- or oil getting through there is 4 to 5 million barrels per day, higher than before, which contributes to that 20 million number.

MAJOR GARRETT:

00:03:54

My memory sometimes falters. Aaron MacLean never does, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you, sir, very much. Of course, Major.