Blocking the Strait of Hormuz

Iran's navy


If Iran follows through with its threat to block the Strait of Hormuz, the price of oil would go up by 50 per cent within days. The Strait is the only sea route from the Persian Gulf and US Navy’s Fifth Fleet stands ready to defend it. At its narrowest, the Strait is 54 kilometres wide and around 14 tankers carrying crude oil pass through it every day. Iran’s shaky economy needs to keep it open so they can keep on exporting their oil and it would punish China who buys more Persian Gulf oil than anyone else so what are they thinking?


Iran has done this before. In the 1980s they attacked Kuwaiti tankers carrying Iraqi oil and President Reagan organized American warships to escort them through. Iran backed down but continued to plant mines and in 1988, an American ship hit one and nearly sank.


“To close the Strait of Hormuz would be an act of war against the whole world,” said Sadad Ibrahim Al-Husseini, former head of exploration and development at Saudi Aramco. “You just can’t play with the global economy and assume that nobody is going to react.” Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates all rely on the strait to ship their oil and natural gas exports and analysts are saying that if the worst case scenario happens, China and the US might have to form some sort of alliance to get the oil moving again.

Last weekend President Obama signed legislation that will make it even tougher for Iran to sell its oil and the European Union is threatening to do the same.