A U.S. defense official told Al Jazeera that on Wednesday, the first of Mehr, 60 ships transited the Strait of Hormuz carrying the highest volume of daily oil since July.

The day before, another U.S. official had told Reuters that about 60 commercial ships had transited the Strait of Hormuz, and that around 40 of these ships had coordinated with the U.S. military for their security.

According to the official’s statement to Reuters, in total, about 22 million barrels of oil passed through this strategic maritime passage.