On this channel, I love to talk about geopolitics, which is the interaction between geography
– how the earth shaped – and politics, how people and countries interact with each
other.
This time we’ll discover why the Strait of Hormuz is so important, and how being narrow
has put this stretch water at the centre of global international tensions.
Before we dive into why the strait is so important, let’s find out where on earth it is.
This is the Arabian peninsula.
On one side of the peninsula, the Arabian sea is connected to the Mediterranean by the
Red Sea, which runs between the peninsula and the continent of Africa and joins the
Mediterranean Sea here, through the Suez Canal.
On the other side of the peninsula, the Arabian sea runs into the Gulf of Oman, which is connected
to the Persian Gulf.
Between these two Gulfs is this very narrow stretch of water – the Strait of Hormuz.
The Strait is bounded on either side by the countries of Iran, Oman, and the United Arab
Emirates.
The Strait of Hormuz helps transport LOADS of oil per day, on some of the biggest ships
on earth.
We’ll go into more detail about that in a moment.
Because of how narrow the strait is, and the volume of oil that is transported through
it, the Strait of Hormuz is the world’s most important chokepoint for the transport
oil.
Just to get an idea of the scale of the amount of oil and other energy products transiting
the strait, here’s some quick maths:
In 2018, the average number of barrels of oil and other petrol liquids passing through
the strait was about 21 million barrels per day.
Each barrel is about 159 litres, which equates to a total of over 3 billion litres, or more
than 1300 Olympic swimming pools of liquid per day.
This is about 21% of the entire world’s daily petrol consumption.
One third of all the sea-transited oil on earth travels through the strait, as well
as one quarter of all of the traded natural gas.
The Strait of Hormuz is only about 39km wide at its narrowest point.
Because of this, ships transiting the strait must stick to strict shipping lanes.
Despite its narrow width, the Strait of Hormuz is deep enough to accommodate the largest
ships on earth – the epically named Very-Large and Ultra-Large Crude Carriers.
Large ships exiting the Persian gulf via the Strait of Hormuz have to participate in a
carefully choreographed dance.
The first shipping lane starts in the territorial waters of Iran.
It then passes between 3 islands which are currently administered by Iran, but claimed
by the UAE.
Next, our supertanker must pass into Omani territorial waters to transit the narrowest
shipping lanes in the narrowest part of the strait.
Once through the strait there are more shipping lanes in the Gulf of Oman that can take ships
back into Iranian territorial waters.
We’ve talked about how the Persian Gulf is connected to the Mediterranean Sea via
the Strait of Hormuz, but actually in 2018 about 76% of the crude oil transmitted through
the Strait headed the other direction – to Asia, and most of that went to only 5 countries
– China, India, Japan, Singapore and South Korea.
To get to the large markets in East Asia, oil tankers usually have to traverse another
oil chokepoint, the Strait of Malacca – which we might talk about in another video.
So the strait of Hormuz is narrow – so narrow that it falls within the territorial waters
of the boundary countries.
This means that any incidents within the strait have the potential to shut down transit, or
at worst to spark conflict between countries.
Just a few months before the release of this video there were attacks on ships in the Gulf
of Oman, near to the opening of the Strait of Hormuz.
Incidents like these threaten the stability of the strait, and increase tensions between
boundary countries.
Now we know just how important the Strait of Hormuz is to global oil trade, we can imagine
just how damaging any disruption to the flow oil through the strait would be to countries
reliant on receiving the oil, and on those countries reliant on the income from selling
oil.
So, aside from the oil-buying countries trying to reduce their reliance on foreign oil – what
else have the oil producing countries done to try and mitigate any threats to the stability
of the Strait of Hormuz as a shipping route?
Well, only Saudi Arabia and the UAE can bypass the Strait of Hormuz by shipping outside of
the Persian Gulf AND have pipelines to get the oil to those ports.
Remember that 21 million barrels per day transited the Strait of Hormuz in 2018.
Saudi Arabia has the East-West pipeline than can transport up to 5 million barrels per
day to its port on the Red Sea, although in 2018 this pipeline was only used to transport
2 million barrels per day.
It also has a natural gas pipeline, which can transport the equivalent of 300000 barrels
per day.
The UAE has the Abu Dhabi Crude oil pipeline, to transport oil directly to the Gulf of Oman
which can pump up to 1.5 million barrels per day, but was only used for 600000 barrels
per day last year.
Other pipelines exist, but most are relatively small and cross international boundaries – so
have fallen into disuse due to recent conflict or political disagreements between countries.
So what does the future hold for the Strait of Hormuz?
Well, that is a very tricky question – and one that I probably can’t answer.
As we’ve discovered, the importance of the strait is amplified by the geography of the
region, including a lack of viable alternate shipping routes, but it’s also important
to acknowledge that the strait is fully integrated into the territorial waters of various countries
meaning that the politics of the region affects the stability of the strait as a shipping
route.
The Strait of Hormuz will likely continue to be one of the most important shipping routes
in the world, especially if the global hunger for oil continues.
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