Despite the efforts of Saudi Arabia to redirect more crude flows to Red Sea exports and away from the Arab Gulf, the stark reality of global oil supply is that it needs the Strait of Hormuz open so it wouldn’t lose an estimated 17 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude and petroleum products this month and next. To put into perspective this massive coordinated global release of oil stocks, the biggest in the history of the oil market, it’s worth noting that before the war cut off the Strait of Hormuz from the global oil supply chain, about 600 million barrels of oil were passing through the chokepoint per month. The loss of oil supply cannot be overstated, and the loss of flows through Hormuz cannot be compensated by any bypassing or workarounds from Saudi Arabia to the Yanbu terminal on the Red Sea, or the UAE pipeline to Fujairah outside the Strait of Hormuz.
Author: Tsvetana Paraskova
Published at: 2026-03-18 00:00:00
Still want to read the full version? Full article
