A helicopter from the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln hovers over an Iranian patrol ship during a transit through the Strait of Hormuz
Tehran is threatening to block the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial artery for oil shipments from the Middle East, if Iranian exports are hampered. This will result in a huge loss of global crude supply and soaring prices.“The declared nominal throughput capacity of the Strait of Hormuz is about 14 oil tankers per day, or 17 million barrels per day, or about half of the world’s daily crude oil exports. If exports through it stop, the law of supply and demand would double oil prices to $160 per barrel,” Vladimir Rojankovski, investment analyst at Global FX, told RT.
The analyst added that if the Strait is blocked for one or two months, oil traders could panic and buy out all available crude futures, sending prices to $250 per barrel. However, Rojankovski expressed doubt that Iran would do that since the area is highly militarized.Most of the crude exported from Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Iraq passes through the Strait of Hormuz. It is also the route for nearly all the liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments from the world’s largest exporter, Qatar.
https://www.rt.com/business