The global economy's dependence on a handful of narrow waterways has never looked more dangerous. Roughly 90% of seaborne oil passes through eight chokepoints and routes - and Iran's paralysis of the most critical one, the Strait of Hormuz, has exposed just how fragile the system is.
The vulnerable corridors include the Strait of Hormuz, Bab el-Mandeb, the Suez Canal, the Strait of Malacca near Singapore, the Danish and Turkish Straits, the Panama Canal and the Cape of Good Hope route, "Hvylya" reports, citing U.S. Energy Information Administration data referenced in a Wall Street Journal analysis.
For some of these passages, no maritime detours exist - supply is effectively strangled. For others, disruption forces shippers into lengthy, costly reroutes that ultimately hit consumers. Iran recently warned that the Houthis in Yemen stood ready to shut Bab el-Mandeb as well.
Circumventing a route like the Strait of Hormuz would require sweeping defenses and new pipeline infrastructure that would take years to build. Sourcing crucial minerals sometimes means operating in unstable environments such as the Democratic Republic of Congo or Mozambique.
Alice Gower of Azure Strategy, a London-based political-risk firm, said the crisis illustrates how control of physical resources has become the defining currency of great-power rivalry. Edward Fishman of the Council on Foreign Relations noted that even a country as energy-rich as the United States cannot escape the consequences when a single waterway is shut down.
Since the conflict began, oil prices have surged around 50% and European natural gas prices have roughly doubled. The strike on Qatar's Ras Laffan, the world's largest LNG facility, prompted President Trump to call for de-escalation.
Previously: "Death Spasm, Not Expansion": What Iran's Proxy Attacks Actually Reveal About Tehran's Control.