Hormuz restricted again
- Iran says it has again restricted access to the Strait of Hormuz, signaling further limits on maritime traffic. - Several vessels reported radio messages from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps telling ships the strait was closed. - The action raises oil and shipping risk and could push energy prices and global trade disruption higher (cnn.com) (independent.co.uk) (thenationalnews.com).
Iran said on April 19 that it was again restricting passage through the Strait of Hormuz, and ship traffic through the waterway largely stalled by Sunday. (nytimes.com) (apnews.com) Several vessels reported radio calls from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps ordering ships to stay out because the strait was closed, according to reports carried Sunday. Iran tied the move to the continuing U.S. blockade of Iranian ports and said restrictions would remain while that blockade stayed in force. (cnn.com) (nytimes.com) (washingtonpost.com) The reversal came two days after Iran’s foreign minister said on April 17 that the strait was “completely open” to commercial traffic during the ceasefire. By April 19, Iran’s parliament speaker was saying Washington and Tehran were still “far from a final agreement.” (aljazeera.com) (cnn.com) The Strait of Hormuz is the narrow sea passage between Iran and Oman that connects the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman. In 2024, about 20 million barrels a day of oil moved through it, equal to about 20% of global petroleum liquids consumption, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. (britannica.com) (eia.gov) The chokepoint matters for gas too. The International Energy Agency says roughly 20% of global liquefied natural gas exports pass through Hormuz, much of it from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. (iea.org) (safety4sea.com) Geography makes the risk hard to route around. At its narrowest point the strait is about 21 miles wide, and the shipping system uses two 2-mile lanes with a buffer between them. (britannica.com) (ontheworldmap.com) Shipping danger in and around Hormuz had already been climbing before Sunday’s renewed restriction. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency said in an April 14 advisory that it had received 30 incident reports in the Arabian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz and Gulf of Oman since February 28, including 18 attacks. (ukmto.org) The immediate dispute now sits between two overlapping pressures: a U.S. naval blockade aimed at Iranian shipping and Iran’s own effort to choke traffic at the strait. Reuters reported Sunday that shipping was at a standstill as those measures collided and talks were still unresolved. (cnbc.com) (msn.com) For now, the story is simple and costly: a waterway that normally handles a fifth of the world’s oil is restricted again, and every extra day of disruption raises pressure on tankers, insurers and energy buyers. (eia.gov) (iea.org)
