About 21 million barrels per day of oil — roughly 20% of global consumption — transits the Strait of Hormuz between Iran and Oman, along with a fifth of global LNG. Bypass pipelines can reroute less than half of it. Live vessel positions in the area are on the tanker map.
| Chokepoint | ≈Mb/d | Volume | Risk note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strait of Malacca | 24 | high | |
| Strait of Hormuz | 21 | high | |
| Suez Canal & SUMED | 9 | high | |
| Bab el-Mandeb | 9 | high | |
| Cape of Good Hope | 7 | medium | |
| Turkish Straits | 3 | medium | |
| Danish Straits | 3 | low | |
| Panama Canal | 1 | low |
Approximate EIA transit estimates (see the flow map for sources and vintages). The Strait of Malacca carries more total volume, but Hormuz is the more acute risk: it has no meaningful sea alternative, and most cargo originates inside the Gulf.
Roughly 21 million barrels per day of crude oil and petroleum products — about a fifth of global consumption — plus around a fifth of the world's LNG (nearly all of Qatar's exports). It is the single most important energy chokepoint on earth.
Between Iran to the north and Oman/UAE to the south, connecting the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the open ocean. At its narrowest it is only 21 miles wide, with two 2-mile-wide shipping lanes. Every barrel exported by sea from Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain — and most from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the UAE and Iran — passes through it.
Only partially. Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline to the Red Sea and the UAE's pipeline to Fujairah together offer roughly 6–8 Mb/d of nominal bypass capacity — well under half of normal Hormuz flow, and both have their own vulnerabilities. Qatar's LNG has no bypass at all.
Even partial disruption would be the largest supply shock in history — analysts' scenarios put crude well above $150 and potentially far higher, with tanker insurance and freight costs spiking immediately. That severity is exactly why full closure has never happened: it would also cut off Iran's own exports and invite massive intervention. Markets instead price recurring "Hormuz risk premia" during tensions.