The Strait of Hermoz can be vulnerable to revenge on Iran. Here is what to know through the vital oil trade.

The United States launched military strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities in local time on Sunday morning. It aims to neutralize the threat “The first sponsor of the state in the world is presented by the world.” It was widely seen as a turning point in America’s participation in the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East as the first direct intervention by the American forces in the war between Israel and Iran.

The strikes have ignited concerns about the potential Iranian revenge and what is the form of such responses. Among them fears that Iran would prevent oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz, a major commercial corridor partially controlled by the country.

What is the Strait of Hormuz, and why is it important?

The Strait of Hormuz is located between Amman and Iran, and the Persian Gulf links the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea and at the narrowest point, with a width of only 21 miles. Water, a decisive piece of global trade infrastructure, facilitates the transit of millions of oil and petroleum products per day, According to To the Energy Information Administration, or EIA, the American Ministry of Energy branch.

Iran dominates the northern side of the strait, which extends along its borders, and Oman, the United Arab Emirates, controls the southern side.

For this reason, the strait has become one of the most important oil “selection points” in the world, US energy officials say. Last week’s analysis by EIA, the selection points are specified as “narrow channels along the widespread global sea roads that are essential for global energy security”, which can raise shipping costs and cause delay in the width if they are disrupted.

Iran has long used the threat to close the strait as a way to ward off Western pressure.

What products pass through the strait?

In 2024 and the first quarter of 2025, more than a quarter of the global maritime oil trade flowed through the Strait of Hormuz, equivalent to about one -fifth of oil and oil consumption around the world, according to the measuring of the environmental environment.

The agency has estimated approximately 20 million barrels of oil to the strait daily since 2020, where data tracking the carrier indicates approximately 40 % of barrels last year from Saudi Arabia – most country. Along with crude oil and petroleum products, the strait also allowed about five LNG trade in the world in 2024, which came primarily from Qatar.

Each of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have oil pipelines that can serve as alternative commercial methods in the event of a hormone strait, but their relative capabilities will be limited. The environmental impact evaluation indicated that the disturbances of the oil flow through the strait will strongly affect a few markets, such as China, India, Japan and South Korea, which imported the majority of oil and gas that it transported in 2024. In the United States, the agency stated that oil imports through the Strait of Hermoz are only for 7 % of the country’s total imports and 2 % of the liquid agreement.

However, officials warn that any interference in oil flows across the strait can disturb international energy markets and economies on a large scale, by strangling the supply and possibly pushing oil and gas.

“Suicide step”

Talking about what Iran might do after that, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sunday “The nation was confronted with Margaret Brennan” The Iranian effort to prevent the strait “will be a suicide step”, which is likely to lead a violent reaction from a large group of strong countries that will be affected by this type of decision.

“If they did so, the first people who should be angry with that are the Chinese government, because many of their Zewyal come there,” Rubio said, when asked about the possibility of Iran’s mining or preventing the movement through the strait. “Mining” requires marine mines – explosives – in water to damage the vessels trying to pass.

If this happens, Rubio said that China “will pay a great price”, as well as “every other country in the world”, including the United States

“It will have some effect on us. It will have a greater impact on the rest of the world,” he said. “It will be a suicide step on their part, because the world will come against them if they do so.”

The United States has pledged, with its fifth fleet stationed in Bahrain, for a long time to support freedom of navigation in the strait.