US energy chief says Navy can only escort ships in March-end, calls X post 'incorrect'

US Energy Secretary Chris Wright on ⁠Thursday took responsibility ⁠for a ‌social ​media post from his account that incorrectly stated ​the US ⁠Navy had escorted an oil tanker through the ⁠Strait ‌of Hormuz.

In an interview, Wright said that it ‌was ‌the result of ‌a miscommunication ‌in his department and that in the ⁠future ⁠he would personally approve posts so that it does not happen ​again.

The energy secretary ​had earlier said that ​the ⁠Navy cannot escort ships through ⁠the ‌Strait of ‌Hormuz ⁠now but it ‌was 'quite ‌likely' that it could ‌happen ‌by the end ⁠of March.

The Strait of Hormuz, the arterial waterway carrying a fifth of the world's oil, remains closed to almost all oil tankers, and Iran has vowed that it won't let oil be exported from the Gulf while the war continues.

German ⁠shipping company Hapag-Lloyd ‌on Thursday said that ​projectile fragments have hit one of their ships, 'Source ​Blessing' - a Liberia-flagged container vessel.

Hapag-Lloyd wrote that the ‌ship, which it ⁠has time-chartered to Danish shipping ‌group ‌Maersk, was not ‌directly ‌hit but had caught fire.

All crew ⁠members ⁠are well and they have extinguished the fire on the ​vessel, the shipping company said.

(With agency inputs)