Strait of Hormuz
Amid the military strike launched by the United States and Israel on Iran on Saturday, February 28, an official from the European Union’s naval mission Aspides said that vessels received VHF transmission from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) saying “no ship is allowed to pass the Strait of Hormuz”, Reuters reported.
The Strait of Hormuz, which lies between Iran on one side and Oman and the UAE on the other, is the world’s most critical energy chokepoint, linking the Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates to the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea.
The waterway is extremely narrow, ranging from 97 km to 39 km. The inbound and outbound shipping lanes are only about 3 km wide, separated by a 2-km buffer zone.
According to a senior crude oil analyst at Kpler, Muyu Xu, the water passageway is critical to the global energy market. “Roughly 30 per cent of the world’s seaborne crude oil, nearly 20 per cent of global jet fuel and about 16 per cent of gasoline and naphtha flows also pass through the Strait,” Muyu was quoted by Al Jazeera.
Almost 80 per cent of this oil is bought by Asian countries such as India, China, Japan and South Korea.
Hence, any disruptions can lead to a spike in global oil prices and economic instability worldwide.
Since the attacks, there has been a steep drop in vessel traffic through the strait. As of March 1, at least 150 tankers have remained stationed in open Gulf waters.
Iran, sitting at the northern shore, controls the key approaches to the Strait, and its naval forces threaten the security of ships operating in the Arabian Gulf and adjacent waters, giving it leverage during conflict.
Director of the Iran project at the International Crisis Group, Ali Vaez, was quoted by Al Jazeera, saying that the closure of the Strait of Hormuz would disrupt roughly a fifth of globally traded oil overnight. “Prices wouldn’t just spike; they would gap violently upward on fear alone,” he said.
In the past, Iran has repeatedly threatened to close the route over attacks on the Islamic Republic, but has never followed through.
Although the Strait is not yet officially closed, several tanker owners have already suspended oil and gas shipments through the Strait amid the ongoing conflict in the region.
On Sunday, March 1, Oman said that an oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz came under attack, wounding four mariners on board.
This post was last modified on March 1, 2026 8:42 pm