A single narrow waterway handles twenty percent of the world's oil

The Strait of Hormuz serves as the world's most important oil transit point, funnelling roughly 21 million barrels of petroleum liquids every day. Located between Iran and Oman, this narrow waterway is the only exit from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean. Because there are limited alternative routes for tankers, even a brief disruption in this passage can cause global oil prices to spike by 20% to 50%.