Strait of Hormuz
The 33 kilometer strait whose narrow shipping lanes carry roughly a fifth of the world's oil.
Overview
Between Iran and Oman, the usable deep-water lanes are only a few kilometers wide in each direction. Around 17 to 21 million barrels of oil and condensate pass daily, plus a large share of the world's LNG from Qatar. Bypass capacity is thin: the Saudi East-West pipeline can move around 5 million barrels a day and the UAE line to Fujairah under 2. The tanker war of the 1980s saw hundreds of ships attacked, seizures and tensions recur, and insurance markets reprice the strait in real time. No full closure has happened, and the world's spare capacity and reserves are partly priced against that risk.
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