How Much Oil Passes Through the Strait of Hormuz?

The Strait of Hormuz is the busiest choke point for the global oil trade after the Strait of Malacca. The roughly 20.3 million barrels of petroleum and crude oil that pass through the strait per day account for roughly 25 percent of the world’s maritime oil trade. Immediately after the outbreak of the 2026 Iran war, about 90 percent of traffic through the strait was diverted to avoid encountering any hostilities. When Iran threatened to attack ships days later, that number rose above 95 percent. The price of oil soon soared worldwide, and parts of Asia that rely heavily on oil from the Persian Gulf faced immediate shortages.

Unlike the Strait of Malacca, which has geographically proximate alternatives, traffic through the Strait of Hormuz cannot be rerouted. It is the only maritime gateway to the Persian Gulf, where major oil producers Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates export most of their oil. A pipeline from the Abqaiq oil field to the port of Yanbuʿ allows Saudi Arabia to divert only about one-fifth of its daily oil exports to the Red Sea. The Habshan-Fujairah oil pipeline allows the United Arab Emirates to divert about half of its daily oil exports to the Gulf of Oman. Transporting oil exports by land is not considered a logistically viable alternative for the volume these countries export by sea. Among the challenges is that replacing one supertanker shipment of oil by land requires about 10,000 trucks and significantly more fuel to transport.