With Iran and Israel in full-on war, the world’s energy nerves are fraying. Central to this anxiety is a narrow strip of water just 21 miles wide at its narrowest point — the Strait of Hormuz. More than a chokepoint, Hormuz is the jugular vein of global energy trade. When Iran’s leadership, in a fit of strategic bravado or calibrated brinkmanship, threatens to block it, global oil and gas markets jolt awake.

For government planners and defence chiefs in Asia, the region most dependent on oil and gas flows through the Hormuz chokepoint, an extended period of the total blockade of the Strait presents a nightmare scenario. Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshide Suga, for instance, stated in May 2019 after the tanker attacks in the Strait that it is a “matter of life and death of our country in terms of energy security”.

The Impact of a Complete Blockade

Iranian officials have often made threats to the security of the shipping, but the Government has never actually attempted to close the Strait. The Strait, thus, has never been blockaded, although shipping traffic was badly affected during the ‘Tanker War’ phase of the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war. In the most recent statement from the Iranian Government, Esmail Kosari, a member of the Parliament’s Security Commission, said that the closure of the strategic Strait of Hormuz is “being seriously reviewed”.

In 2024, approximately 20 million barrels of crude oil passed through the Strait every day. That’s around 20% of global petroleum liquids consumption, and about 30% of all seaborne crude oil trade. On the natural gas front, nearly a fifth of the world’s LNG exports — mainly from Qatar and the UAE — navigate these same waters. Together, oil and gas transiting Hormuz power the economies of East Asia, Europe and beyond. This isn’t some obscure regional pipeline; it’s a linchpin of the world economy.

Read More: Iran Threatens Energy Market Meltdown as it “Reviews” Closure of Strait of Hormuz

Adblock test (Why?)