As the NOTUS website writes, citing former administration officials, in July 2025, as part of the DOGE team's employment reduction initiative, the administration fired employees responsible for developing scenarios in the event of a Strait of Hormuz closure. Specialists maintaining contacts with oil and gas companies in the Middle East also left.
Information provided to Congress shows that when last summer 1,300 State Department employees were fired, only specialists in critical raw materials and clean energy remained in the Office of Energy Resources.
Geoffrey Pyatt, former deputy secretary of state for energy resources in the Joe Biden administration, estimated that much of the institutional knowledge was lost with office closures and layoffs.
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According to former officials, the Bureau of Energy Resources fired the only expert tracking the sanctioned tankers, as well as the person responsible for liaising with the International Energy Agency, which coordinates the release of the world's oil reserves during emergencies.
Problems in ministries after layoffs from months ago
Former employees emphasize that the standard process of analysis, reporting and debate before making decisions has virtually ceased. Previously, the Department of State, the National Security Council, and the Departments of Treasury and Energy conducted intensive interagency consultations in the face of global energy crises.
— There has never been any transfer of powers or transformation. There was no formal transfer of contacts or anything like that. We were all just fired,” said a former State Department energy official.
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Although the dismissed employees were informed that their duties would be taken over by other ministries, including the Ministry of Energy, – according to the portal – in practice this never happened.
In response to questions about the matter, the State Department did not address it directly, but only said that the affected unit “coordinates the release of strategic reserves with allies and supports the expansion of production by American companies in key markets – Central Asia, Africa and the Western Hemisphere, including Venezuela.”
