Updated August 5th, 2026
The Strait of Hormuz is 21 miles wide at its narrowest. Two shipping lanes, each about two miles across, separated by a two-mile buffer. That’s the entire passage connecting the Persian Gulf to the open ocean, and since late February 2026 it has been closed to most commercial traffic for long stretches at a time.
Status as of August 5, 2026: the strait is effectively closed to commercial shipping. Transits have run in the low teens per day against a normal baseline of roughly 88, and reporting indicates Iran and Oman are discussing a single designated corridor while Qatar has floated an interim proposal. This situation has reversed several times since March, so treat any status reading, including this one, as a snapshot rather than a settled position.
How We Got Here: A Timeline
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| February 28, 2026 | The United States and Israel launched coordinated strikes on Iran, hitting nuclear and military targets. |
| March 2, 2026 | Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps announced closure of the strait to US and Israel-allied shipping. Commercial transits collapsed to near zero. |
| March 4–7, 2026 | QatarEnergy and then Kuwait declared force majeure on LNG shipments. On March 7 a single commercial vessel transited, with zero oil tankers. |
| April 8, 2026 | A Pakistan-brokered ceasefire allowed partial reopening. |
| April 19, 2026 | Iran restricted most passage again. |
| June 14–17, 2026 | The United States and Iran agreed to a phased reopening, formalised in a memorandum on June 17. |
| June 19, 2026 | Tanker traffic surged as the deal took effect, then Geneva talks were abruptly postponed. |
| July 6–9, 2026 | Three tankers were attacked and traffic was severely disrupted again. |
| July 23, 2026 | Ten ships transited in a single day against a normal baseline near 88. |
| Early August 2026 | The strait is effectively closed. Talks continue on an Oman-managed corridor and a Qatari interim proposal. |
The pattern tells you more than any single day’s reading. Since February the strait has swung between full closure, partial reopening and closure again at least three times. Planning around a single announcement has burned shippers repeatedly this year. Plan for intermittent access rather than a clean reopening.
The TLDR
Approximately 20 million barrels per day of crude oil and petroleum products transit the Strait of Hormuz, representing roughly 25% of all global seaborne oil trade and about one-fifth of total world oil consumption, according to IEA data for 2025. The strait also handles roughly 20% of global LNG trade. Under normal conditions roughly 88 commercial vessels a day pass through the strait’s two shipping lanes, each about two miles wide and separated by a two-mile buffer zone within the 21-mile-wide passage.
Who are we? Speed Commerce is an end-to-end provider of outsourced customer experience solutions for eCommerce retailers (including for BigCommerce and more) as well as manufacturers, for close to 20 years. We grow our clients’ businesses by providing winning customer experience strategies such as 24/7/365 eCommerce customer service, order fulfillment, and warehousing – get a free quote from a fulfillment expert. Refer to our guide on crowdfunding fulfillment services, and east coast fulfillment updated for 2026.
Twenty Million Barrels a Day, Gone
The headline number everyone’s citing at the moment is correct, that about 20 million barrels of crude oil and petroleum products moved through Hormuz every day in 2025, according to the International Energy Agency. That’s about 25% of all seaborne oil trade on Earth and one-fifth of global oil consumption. Of that, around 14.7 million barrels were crude and another 4.8 million were refined products like diesel and jet fuel.
The IEA’s March 2026 report did not mince words, calling this the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market. The agency estimates that approximately 8 million barrels per day of crude and 2 million barrels of condensates and natural gas liquids have been cut from global supply since the closure. Gulf producers (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE, Iraq) have been forced to slash production because there’s nowhere to put the oil. Storage is filling up and tankers won’t move.
Pipeline alternatives exist, but they’re nowhere near sufficient. Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline can push some volume to the Red Sea port of Yanbu, and the UAE’s Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline reaches Fujairah on the Arabian Sea. Together, available bypass capacity tops out at roughly 3.5 to 5.5 million barrels per day, covering barely a quarter of what Hormuz normally handles. And five countries, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and Iran itself, have zero bypass infrastructure. About 14 million barrels per day are locked to this passage.
The LNG Crisis
Oil gets the headlines, but the liquefied natural gas situation may be worse. Qatar, the world’s second-largest LNG exporter, ships virtually all of its gas through Hormuz. So does the UAE. Together, they supplied around 20% of global LNG trade, with nearly 90% of those volumes headed to Asian markets.
That’s over. QatarEnergy declared force majeure on all LNG shipments on March 4 after Iranian attacks damaged its Ras Laffan facilities. That single move yanked 20% of the world’s LNG supply off the market overnight. Kuwait followed with its own force majeure on March 7. European gas prices doubled in a matter of days, jumping from about $35 per MWh to above $69 per MWh, converted from the euro-denominated TTF benchmark at 1.154.
For supply chain operators, the LNG angle is relevant because it affects petrochemical feedstock. LPG and naphtha supplies are already forcing petrochemical plants to cut production of polymers, the raw material for packaging, plastics, and a huge range of consumer goods. The IEA flagged this in its March report: the knock-on effects are spreading across the product spectrum.
Strait of Hormuz Oil Transit Volume and Percentage of Global Supply (2025–2026)
Before the current crisis shut down traffic, the Strait of Hormuz was the highest-volume energy transit corridor on Earth. We detail the oil transit volume figures, drawing on the most recent data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the International Energy Agency (IEA), and tanker-tracking services like Vortexa and Kpler.
In the first half of 2025, total oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz averaged approximately 20.9 million barrels per day (b/d), according to the EIA’s World Oil Transit Chokepoints analysis. That total includes roughly 15 million b/d of crude oil and condensate, plus approximately 5.5 million b/d of refined petroleum products such as diesel, jet fuel, and fuel oil. The IEA’s data for full-year 2025 puts the average at 20 million b/d of crude and products combined.
As a percentage of global supply, those volumes represent roughly 20% of total world petroleum liquids consumption (measured against global demand of over 103 million b/d in early 2026, per the IEA’s Oil Market Report). They also account for approximately 25–27% of all seaborne oil trade worldwide, making Hormuz the highest-volume oil chokepoint on the planet.
Within that total, crude oil alone tells a striking story. Nearly 15 million b/d of crude transited the strait in 2025, which the IEA calculates at roughly 34% of all global crude oil trade. Saudi Arabia is the dominant single-country contributor, accounting for about 38% of Hormuz crude flows at approximately 5.5 million b/d. Iraq, Kuwait, the UAE, Qatar, and Iran make up the rest.
The destination profile is overwhelmingly Asian. According to EIA data, about 84% of all crude oil and condensate shipped through the Strait of Hormuz in 2024 was headed to Asian markets. China, India, Japan, and South Korea were the four largest importers, collectively receiving 69% of all Hormuz crude flows. China alone received roughly a third of its oil supply via this passage. By contrast, the United States imported only about 0.5 million b/d through the strait in 2024, just 7% of total U.S. crude imports and 2% of U.S. petroleum liquids consumption.
Liquefied natural gas (LNG) transiting Hormuz adds another layer of global exposure. Qatar, the world’s second-largest LNG exporter, shipped over 112 billion cubic meters (bcm) of LNG in 2025, with approximately 93% of those volumes passing through the strait. The UAE contributed another 7 bcm, with 96% transiting Hormuz. All told, about 20% of the world’s total LNG trade moved through this single chokepoint, with roughly 83% of those cargoes bound for Asian markets. China, India, and South Korea were the top three LNG destinations.
Bypass options are very limited. Only Saudi Arabia and the UAE operate pipelines capable of moving crude around the strait. Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline (Petroline) has a design capacity of 5 million b/d, with Aramco reporting an expanded capacity of 7 million b/d as of March 2025, though sustainable flows have not been tested at that level, and roughly 2 million b/d was already in use as of early 2026, leaving an estimated 3 to 5 million b/d of spare capacity. The UAE’s Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline (ADCOP) connects onshore oil fields to its Fujairah export terminal on the Gulf of Oman, but increased use for routine operations has limited its excess capacity. Combined, available bypass capacity tops out at roughly 3.5 to 5.5 million b/d, covering barely a quarter of what normally transits Hormuz.
5 major producing countries, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and Iran, have zero pipeline bypass infrastructure. That leaves approximately 14 million barrels per day structurally locked to this single maritime passage, with no alternative route to global markets.
Strait of Hormuz Oil Transit Volume, Figures for 2025–2026
| Metric | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Total oil flow (crude + products) | ~20–20.9 million b/d | EIA (H1 2025), IEA (full-year 2025) |
| Crude oil and condensate | ~15 million b/d | IEA (2025) |
| Refined petroleum products | ~5.5 million b/d | EIA (H1 2025) |
| Share of global petroleum consumption | ~20% | EIA, IEA |
| Share of global seaborne oil trade | ~25–27% | EIA, IEA |
| Share of global crude oil trade | ~34% | IEA (2025) |
| Share of global LNG trade | ~19–20% | IEA, EIA |
| Top exporter through Hormuz | Saudi Arabia (~5.5 million b/d crude) | EIA/Vortexa (2024) |
| Crude destined for Asian markets | ~84% | EIA (2024) |
| LNG destined for Asian markets | ~83% | EIA (2024) |
| Available pipeline bypass capacity | 3.5–5.5 million b/d (oil only) | IEA, EIA |
| Volume with zero bypass options | ~14 million b/d | IEA/EIA analysis |
33 Million Containers a Year & a Hub Gone Dark
Annually, about 33 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent container units) pass through the Gulf to terminals in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, and Bahrain. This is 3.5% of global container trade.
The reason is Jebel Ali. Dubai’s flagship port handles 15.5 million TEUs a year and operates as the Middle East’s primary transshipment node, the place where cargo gets sorted and redistributed across the region, into East Africa, South Asia, and beyond. Its transshipment ratio is 65%, meaning most of what arrives there is headed somewhere else. When Jebel Ali goes dark, the ripple effect reaches far past the Gulf.
Strait of Hormuz, Pre-Crisis Shipping Volume Snapshot
| Metric | Volume |
| Crude oil + products | ~20 million barrels/day |
| Share of global seaborne oil | ~25% |
| Share of global LNG trade | ~20% |
| Container throughput (Gulf ports) | 33 million TEUs/year |
| Jebel Ali annual volume | 15.5 million TEUs/year |
| Average daily vessel transits (normal conditions) | ~88 commercial ships |
| Annual vessel transits | 30,000+ |
| Available pipeline bypass capacity | 3.5–5.5 million barrels/day (oil only) |
Sources: IEA, EIA, Drewry, IMF PortWatch, Vortexa/Kpler tanker tracking
Container Ships Trapped Inside the Gulf
At the peak of the March closure, more than 130 container ships were reported trapped inside the Persian Gulf. Another 62 were waiting outside the strait. Sea-Intelligence put stranded deep-sea capacity at over 200,000 TEUs. Some of that capacity cleared during the June reopening window, then re-accumulated after transits fell away again in July. These weren’t small feeder vessels. They were ships on mainline services connecting Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.
The four largest container lines, that includes MSC, Maersk, CMA CGM, and Hapag-Lloyd, have suspended Hormuz transits and halted new bookings for the region. MSC went furthest, declaring “end of voyage” on shipments already in transit to the Middle East. CMA CGM moved most of its fleet away from Gulf calls within days. Kpler’s analysis identified ships from every major alliance stuck in various stages of limbo: some holding offshore, some making intra-Gulf calls to burn time, others diverting to alternative ports entirely.
What Have Shippers Been Paying?
Container rates between China and the Persian Gulf jumped 35% before the end of February, and war-risk surcharges piled on top. The figures below are the mid-March 2026 schedule. Carriers have adjusted them repeatedly as access opened and closed through the summer, so check current advisories before quoting a lane.
Emergency Surcharges by Carrier (as of mid-March 2026)
| Carrier | Route / Description | Surcharge |
| MSC | Arabian Peninsula → Africa/Indian Ocean | $2,000/TEU |
| MSC | Indian subcontinent → East Africa | $500/TEU |
| Maersk | Oman/Jordan/Saudi → Latin America | $3,300/TEU |
| Maersk | Oman/Jordan/Saudi → North America | $1,800/TEU |
| CMA CGM | Emergency conflict surcharge | $2,000/TEU |
Sources: Sourcing Journal, FreightWaves, carrier advisories
These surcharges are on top of base freight rates. A shipper moving goods from the Arabian Peninsula to Latin America through Maersk is now looking at an extra $3,300 for every single 20-foot container. That’s more than double the prior surcharge cap of $1,500 on those routes.
War-risk insurance is the other hammer. Before the conflict, premiums for transiting Hormuz ran about 0.125% of a ship’s insured value. By late February that’s jumped to 0.2–0.4%, adding a quarter of a million dollars per transit for large tankers. After the shooting started, several P&I clubs pulled war-risk coverage altogether, making commercial transit economically impossible regardless of a carrier’s willingness to try.
Global Commerce Hanging in the Balance
If you ship goods to or from the Middle East, you’re already feeling this. If you don’t, you’ll feel it soon.
The direct impact hits Gulf-connected supply chains immediately. But the second-order effects are what should worry everyone. Over 200,000 TEUs of vessel capacity locked in the Gulf means fewer ships available on Asia-Europe and transpacific routes. Container equipment gets trapped in the wrong place. Schedules unravel. Rates rise globally, not just on Gulf lanes.
Brent traded above $100 during the March peak and has since swung roughly between $75 and $85 as reopening talks advanced and stalled. Higher crude means higher fuel costs for every ship on every route. Bunker prices ripple straight into freight rates. The IEA has already cut its 2026 global oil demand forecast, and the agency’s language about the economic outlook is unusually blunt. Higher oil prices plus supply chain disruption equals the kind of inflationary pressure central banks were hoping they’d put behind them.
If polymer production drops because feedstock from the Gulf is unavailable, that affects packaging, plastics, and manufactured goods well beyond the Middle East.
We’ll keep updating this story as the situation develops. The underlying numbers on volume, share and bypass capacity hold regardless of who controls the passage on any given week, and they explain why a single 21-mile channel can move global prices. The repercussions for the global economy could be vast.
References
- International Energy Agency (IEA), Oil Market Report, March 2026
- International Energy Agency (IEA), Strait of Hormuz Oil Security and Emergency Response page (updated 2025–2026)
- U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), “Amid regional conflict, the Strait of Hormuz remains critical oil chokepoint,” June 2025
- IMF / University of Oxford, PortWatch maritime trade monitoring platform
- Kpler, “Strait of Hormuz disruption: Which container vessels are trapped, waiting, or diverting?”, March 4, 2026
- MarineTraffic AIS vessel tracking data (cited via Sourcing Journal and Container Management)
- Sea-Intelligence, analysis of stranded TEU capacity in the Persian Gulf, March 2026
- project44, container shipping diversion tracking data, March 2026
- Drewry, Q1 2026 Port Connectivity Index and Gulf bypass analysis (cited via FreightWaves)
- Vortexa, tanker tracking data (cited via EIA and IEA reports)
- Lloyd’s List Intelligence, Iranian export and bypass pipeline flow data
- FreightWaves, “Why Strait of Hormuz maritime access is also its biggest weakness,” March 13, 2026
- Sourcing Journal, “Container Ships Stuck in Persian Gulf as Hormuz Conflict Paralyzes Traffic,” early March 2026
- Container Management, “Strait of Hormuz Crisis Halts Container Shipping as Jebel Ali Port Goes Silent,” March 5, 2026
- Container Management, “Strait of Hormuz Blockade Cuts Jebel Ali Off From Global Container Trade,” March 1, 2026
- WorldCargo News, “Projectile strike hits Maersk-chartered container ship near Jebel Ali,” March 14, 2026
- Maritime Gateway, “DP World Activates Land Corridors to Keep Jebel Ali Cargo Moving,” March 2026
- Maritime News, “Iran Strait of Hormuz Closure Shipping Risks 2026” and “Gulf of Oman Shipping Disruptions March 2026”
- gCaptain, “Container Shipping Diversions Surge 360% Amid Hormuz Closure,” March 10, 2026
- EF International, Container Market Report, March 2026
- CNBC, “Crude prices close higher as market weighs threats to tankers against IEA oil stockpile release,” March 11, 2026
- CNBC, “Brent oil closes at $100 after Iran’s new supreme leader says Strait of Hormuz must remain closed,” March 12, 2026
Congressional Research Service, “The Strait of Hormuz in Brief: Non-Oil Shipments and Effects on U.S. Shippers,” report R48903
CNBC, “Oil tanker traffic in Strait of Hormuz jumps after U.S. and Iran implement deal to open sea lane,” June 19, 2026
CNBC, “Oil prices today: Brent, WTI, Hormuz blockade,” July 15, 2026
Reporting on the July 2026 tanker attacks, the subsequent decline in transits, and Oman and Qatar mediation efforts, August 2026
