DUBAI, July 12 — A narrow ribbon of water 21 miles wide is the conduit for roughly one-fifth of the world’s daily petroleum consumption. The Strait of Hormuz, connecting the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea, saw about 17 million barrels of oil and liquefied natural gas move through its two-mile-wide shipping lanes each day in 2023, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. That’s a lot of energy flowing through a very tight space.
In plain terms, the strait is one of the world’s most strategically important choke points. Think of it like a single highway on-ramp that handles a fifth of all the fuel that powers cars, planes, and factories globally.
If that on-ramp gets blocked, the whole system feels it.
Who’s moving what through the strait
The numbers break down by country. Saudi Arabia shipped the most crude through the strait in 2023, at 6.5 million barrels per day. Iraq followed with 3.4 million barrels per day, the United Arab Emirates with 2.5 million, and Kuwait with 2.1 million.
Qatar’s exports are primarily liquefied natural gas. Even Iran, which sits on the strait’s northern shore, sends about half a million barrels of its own oil through the waterway each day.
The practical upshot: five major energy producers depend on this single route to get their product to global markets. The strait is also a regular transit corridor for U.S. Navy and allied naval vessels operating in the region.
Can the world bypass it?
There are alternative pipelines, but they don’t come close to matching the strait’s capacity. Saudi Arabia’s East-West Pipeline can move up to 5 million barrels per day across the kingdom to the Red Sea. The Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline has a capacity of 1.5 million barrels per day.
Combined, those two pipelines handle less than half of what the strait moves on a typical day. The depth of the strait ranges from 50 to 100 meters, which is deep enough for supertankers to navigate.
That physical reality — a deep, narrow corridor that can handle massive vessels — is part of what makes the strait so hard to replace.
What to watch next
The strait’s strategic importance isn’t new, but the numbers underscore just how concentrated global energy flows remain. Any disruption — whether from geopolitical tension, accidents, or military posturing — would have immediate effects on oil prices and supply chains worldwide. The alternative pipelines offer some cushion, but the math makes clear: there is no practical substitute for the Strait of Hormuz.
