Two oil tankers were attacked and left burning off the Iraqi coast on Thursday, the latest in a series of strikes during the Middle East war that have crippled the global energy sector.
Iran has taken responsibility for several of the strikes on merchant ships in the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of the world’s oil output normally flows. Tehran has said that it would not allow oil shipments that benefit the United States and its allies to pass through the strait.
Oil prices have surged to trade around $100 per barrel, forcing dozens of countries to release emergency reserves to stabilize their economies.
The strikes on shipping have given Iran a strategic success, putting economic pressure on the United States and its allies even as Iran is under heavy attack. Tehran’s actions have also raised questions about whether the United States planned for a lengthy shutdown of the strait.
“The lever of blocking the Strait of Hormuz must continue to be used,” said Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s new supreme leader.
What’s the latest?
On Thursday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps claimed responsibility for attacking one of the two tankers off Iraq’s coast, saying the Marshall Islands-flagged ship had “disobeyed and ignored” warnings.
A British naval monitoring group said that a third ship was struck by an unknown projectile near Dubai. Security concerns on Thursday also forced the closure of oil export terminals in Iraq and Oman.
In all, more than a dozen shipping vessels have been struck since the United States and Israel attacked Iran in late February.
Why is the Strait of Hormuz so important?
The Strait of Hormuz is a strategic waterway connecting the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the broader Indian Ocean. It is the only sea route that can move oil, natural gas and other cargo out of the Persian Gulf. Iran’s coastline runs along both the strait and the gulf.
At the strait’s narrowest point — between Iran to the north and Oman’s Musandam Peninsula to the south — the navigable channel is about two miles wide each for inbound and outbound traffic, according to the International Energy Agency.
In normal times, about 20 percent of global oil and liquid natural gas passes through the strait. Most of the fossil fuels are bound for Asia, especially China, India, Japan and South Korea.
Other large vessels also normally go through the strait, including car carriers and container ships. Crucial industrial goods — including helium from Qatar, fertilizer from Oman and Saudi Arabia and plastic feedstocks from Saudi Arabia and Emirati petrochemical plants — also travel through Hormuz.
How is Iran choking off traffic?
Iran’s military currently has a strategic advantage in the Persian Gulf and the strait, with the ability to threaten shipping traffic, even after much of its navy has been destroyed by U.S. and Israeli strikes.
Projectiles: Since the war began, at least a dozen cargo vessels and oil tankers have been hit in the Gulf and the strait. Iran has taken responsibility for several of them. It’s not entirely clear what type of weapons it used, but Iran’s military has deployed a wide array of missiles and drones during the conflict.
Mines: The next stage of the fighting may involve naval mines, explosives that are often no bigger than a beach ball which can still sink large vessels.
On Thursday, the U.S. military said it had damaged or destroyed over 30 mine-laying vessels since the war began. It is not clear whether any Iranian mines have actually been deployed in the Strait of Hormuz.
Insurance: After a relatively small number of strikes, the cost of insuring a vessel to go through the strait has soared, making it prohibitively expensive. President Trump has said the U.S. government may provide affordable insurance coverage, but experts are dubious. One analyst estimated the potential cost could be more than $300 billion.
Iran’s own tankers: For years, the common wisdom among military analysts was that Iran would not close the strait because it needed to export its own oil. But shipping analysts say that in recent days, Iran has been loading oil and exporting it through the strait, letting its own ships through even as it threatens and attacks others.
Since March 1, at least 10 tankers and gas carriers have left Iran and transited the strait, according to Lloyd’s List Intelligence, a shipping analysis firm.
How is it affecting energy prices around the world?
The war in the Middle East has caused the “the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market,” the International Energy Agency said on Thursday.
In the United States, gasoline prices rose by about 20 percent. In Europe, the price of natural gas surged more than 43 percent, and diesel prices doubled. Asia, which receives roughly 70 percent of all crude shipped through Hormuz, absorbed the worst of the supply shock, forcing countries like Pakistan to move to a four-day workweek to conserve fuel.
In response, the 32 member states of the I.E.A. agreed this week to release 400 million barrels of oil from their strategic reserves, the most ever. But the move did not bring oil prices down: The price of Brent crude, the global benchmark, climbed briefly back above $100 a barrel on Thursday, about $30 higher than it was before the war began.
Higher energy prices have rippled across the global economy, stoking inflation and threatening countries around the world.
Mr. Trump has touted the “energy dominance” of the United States, which is the world’s biggest oil producer. But oil is a globally priced commodity, so higher crude prices translate into higher prices at U.S. gas stations, regardless of how much oil the U.S. produces domestically.
Peter Eavis, John Ismay, Ed Wong and Yeganeh Torbati contributed additional reporting.
The post Why Is Iran Blocking the Strait of Hormuz? appeared first on New York Times.
