Strait

Strait of Hormuz

In the first half of 2025, about 20.9 million barrels of oil a day passed through Hormuz — roughly one-quarter of the world’s maritime oil trade.

Source: eia.gov

Between Oman and Iran, Hormuz links the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and Arabian Sea. In early 2025 it also carried 11.4 billion cubic feet of LNG a day.

Source: eia.gov

Find Strait of Hormuz on the map

One of the world’s key chokepoints

The Strait of Hormuz is the passage leading out of the Persian Gulf. It is deep and wide enough for the largest crude oil tankers in the world, and together with the Strait of Malacca it is one of the two most important oil chokepoints by volume.

Source: eia.gov

Where the cargo goes

Most of the oil that passes through Hormuz heads east. In the first half of 2025, about 89% of the crude oil and condensate went to Asian markets, and China, India, Japan and South Korea alone took 74%. Saudi Arabia ships more crude through the strait than any other country, while most of the liquefied natural gas that passes through comes from Qatar.

Source: eia.gov

Routes around it

A few pipelines can carry oil around the strait. Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline and the UAE’s Abu Dhabi pipeline could together move about 4.7 million barrels a day if shipping were disrupted, and the UAE plans another pipeline by 2027, from Jebel Dhanna to Fujairah. That is still far less than the oil that normally sails through.

Source: eia.gov

Where it is

Location of Strait of Hormuz on a world map.

On the Atlas Quest map, the Strait of Hormuz label sits at 26.5° N, 56.3° E, in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres.

Coordinates, names: Natural Earth, public domain.

Nearby places

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