The conflict in the Gulf is escalating after the US and Israeli attacks on Iran and Iran’s subsequent retaliation – and observers are warning of rising oil prices around the world, effectively closing the critical shipping route, the Strait of Hormuz.
The US-Israeli war with Iran has already halted some energy exports from the Middle East, attacking Tehran’s ships and fuel facilities, closing off navigation in the Gulf and halting production from Qatar to Iraq as neighboring countries have been hit by Iranian missile attacks.
The Strait of Hormuz was impassable for a fourth day after Iran attacked five ships, choking off a major artery with threats to attack others trying to cross.
The narrow sliver of sea in the Persian Gulf is vital to global trade, and here are four numbers that will help you understand why it matters.
March 24, 2021 – Earth’s Atmosphere – The Strait of Hormuz, a strategically important shipping lane separating the United Arab Emirates and Iran, is pictured. It separates the main water bodies of the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. (Image credit: © NASA/ZUMA Wire/ZUMAPRESS.com).
The strait lies between Oman and Iran and connects the Persian Gulf to its north with the Gulf of Oman to its south and the Arabian Sea beyond.
At its narrowest point, the strait is only 29 nautical miles or 54 km wide, according to the International Energy Agency. However, the shipping lane is only two miles wide or about 3.7 km.
This makes the Strait of Hormuz a ‘chokepoint’ – or narrow shipping lane in the global trade route.
For the oil-rich nations along the Persian Gulf, this narrow seaway is the only channel connecting the Gulf to the Arabian Sea.
There are major shipping centers along the strait, including the major Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas.
According to the International Energy Agency, an average of 20 million barrels of oil are transported through the Strait of Hormuz each day. This amounts to about a quarter of all seaborne oil trade, the agency says.
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Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Iraq export their oil through this narrow strait, with few alternative routes available.
Most of the oil from the region is exported to Asian markets, mainly China, India and Japan. China and India account for 44 percent of all oil exported through this channel.
Infographic ‘Strait of Hormuz’ created on February 28, 2026 in Ankara, Turkey. (Photo by Bedirhan Demirel/Anadolu via Getty Images).
“As around 25% of the world’s seaborne oil trade passes through the strait and options to bypass it are limited, any disruption to flows through the strait would have huge implications for world oil markets,” the IEA said in a recent report.
It’s not just oil: If the strait is closed for long periods of time, global natural gas supplies will also suffer. According to the IEA, 20 percent of the world’s total liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply comes through this route.
About 93 percent of Qatar’s and 96 percent of the UAE’s LNG exports pass through the Strait of Hormuz, the agency said.
“There are no alternative ways to bring these volumes to market,” said a recent report.
Oil trade through the Strait of Hormuz has long been the subject of conflict in the region.
In 1973, Arab producers led by Saudi Arabia imposed an oil embargo on Western backers of Israel in its war with Egypt. Western countries were major buyers of Middle Eastern crude oil at the time.
During the 1980–1988 Iran–Iraq War, the two sides attempted to disrupt each other’s exports, including strikes on more than 100 oil tankers in the so-called Tanker War.
In January 2012, Iran threatened to block the strait in retaliation for US and European sanctions. In May 2019, four ships – including two Saudi oil tankers – were attacked off the coast of the UAE, outside the Strait of Hormuz.
Three vessels, two in 2023 and one in 2024, were seized near or in the Straits of Iran. Some of the seizures followed the US seizure of tankers linked to Iran.
Last year, Iran considered closing the strait after a US attack on its nuclear facilities.
US President Donald Trump has said that the US and Israeli military operations in Iran will continue for another four to five weeks, but we have more time than that.
After Saturday’s initial attack on Iran, Trump said he warned Iran “to make no attempt to rebuild” its nuclear program.
“I’ve said from the beginning: They’re never going to have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said Monday afternoon at a Medal of Honor ceremony in his first live public statement since the attack.
A trade shutdown in the Strait of Hormuz is already hitting global oil and gas supplies.
Iraq has cut oil production by about 1.5 million barrels a day and that cut could extend to three million barrels a day in days as the Iran crisis has left the country out of storage and unable to export crude, two Iraqi oil officials told Reuters on Tuesday.
Experts are warning that the protracted conflict will have a major impact on global supply.
“We have (already) seen the cessation of outflows from the Strait of Hormuz,” Go Katayama, principal insight analyst at Kpler, told Reuters.
“We are entering a kind of unprecedented era, much bigger in my opinion than what we saw in the Ukraine-Russia crisis,” he said.
The IEA report warns that if more supply from the region is sent to Asian markets, the ripple effects will be felt in markets around the world.
An infographic titled ‘Strait of Hormuz’ was created on March 2, 2026 in Ankara, Turkey. The Strait of Hormuz is one of the most strategic maritime chokepoints. (Photo by Mehmet Yaren Bozgun/Anadolu via Getty Images).
“A loss of around 20% of global LNG supply will fuel price volatility and require further demand adjustments in key Asian and European import markets,” the agency said in its February report.
The effects of the supply shock may be felt beyond markets directly dependent on Qatari and Emirati LNG,” it added.
– with files from Reuters
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
(tags to translate)Iran(T)Strait of Hormuz(T)Economy(T)World
