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What is Hormuz’s street and what could happen if Iran blocks it?
International

What is Hormuz’s street and what could happen if Iran blocks it?

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Key Points
  • Iran can close Street of Hormuz after American strikes at nuclear facilities, StaatsstV reports reports.
  • About 20 percent of global oil supply flows through the strategic street of Hormuz every day.
  • Past threats to block the Zeestraat has never been released, but tensions are now at a boiling point.
Iran’s best security body must make the final decision to close the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian TV said, after the parliament reportedly supported the measure in response to American strikes to various nuclear sites of Tehran.
In the past Iran has threatened to close the street, but never followed the move, which would limit trade and influence global oil prices.

Below are details about the street:

What is the Strait of Hormuz?

The street is located between Oman and Iran and connects the Gulf north of it with the Gulf of Oman to the south and the Arab Sea behind it.

It is 33 kilometers wide at the narrowest point, with the shipping strip only three kilometers wide in both directions.

Why does it matter?

About a fifth of the world’s total oil consumption goes through the street. Between the beginning of 2022 and last month, somewhere between 17.8 million and 20.8 million barrels of crude oil, condensate and fuels flocked through the street, data from analysis company Vortexa turned out.

OPEC members Saudi -Arabia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Iraq export most of their crude oil through the street, mainly to Asia. The VAE and Saudi Aarabia have tried to find other routes to bypass the Zeestraat.

There are seven strategic maritime choke points in the global oil trade with the Strait of Hormuz arranged by number two. Source: Getty / Muhammad Ali Yigit

About 2.6 million barrels per day (BPD) Unused capacity of existing VAE and Saudi pipelines can be available to bypass Hormuz, said the US Energy Information Administration in June last year.

Qatar, from the world’s largest liquid natural gas expansers, sends almost all of his LNG through the street.

The American fifth fleet, based in Bahrain, has the task of protecting commercial shipping in the area.

History of tensions

In 1973, under the leadership of Saudi Arabia, Arabic producers made an oil embargo on Western supporters of Israel in his war with Egypt.
While Western countries were the most important buyers of crude oil produced by the Arab countries at that time, Asia is nowadays the most important buyer of Opec’s crude oil.
The US has more than doubled the production of oil fluids in the past two decades and have turned the world’s largest oil importer into one of the best exporters.

During the war between 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq, the two parties tried to disturb each other’s exports in what was called the tank war.

In July 1988, an American warship shot down an Iranian plane, killing all 290 on board, in what Washington said was an accident and Tehran said it was a deliberate attack.
In January 2012, Iran threatened to block the street in retaliation for American and European sanctions. In May 2019, four ships – including two Saudi oil tankers – were attacked off the coast of the VAE, outside the Strait of Hormuz.
Three ships, two in 2023 and one in 2024, were seized by Iran near or in the Strait of Hormuz. Some attacks followed us attacks by tankers related to Iran.
Attacks on cargo ships in the Strait of Hormuz have expressed their concern about how disruptive a conflict in the Golf could be for the global oil trade.

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