The Strait of Hormuz is currently the center of a severe global crisis following its effective closure by Iran on March 2, 2026. As the world's most critical oil chokepoint, the strait facilitates the transit of approximately 20% of the global oil supply (roughly 20–21 million barrels per day) and 20% of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
The leaders of industrialized nations were racing on Wednesday to shore up the global oil supply, after three ships in the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz came under attack, in a stark illustration of how the war in the Middle East is threatening to choke off one of the key conduits for international trade. Japan, Germany and Austria will release oil from their strategic reserves in response to disruptions in the supply from the Middle East, officials in those countries said on Wednesday. They made the announcements hours before a meeting of leaders of the Group of 7 industrialized nations, including the United States, to discuss jointly releasing oil in consultation with the International Energy Agency. The attacks, which occurred within a few hours of each other, marked a sharp uptick in strikes on vessels in or near the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil transits. On Tuesday, the U.S. military said that it had attacked 16 Iranian mine-laying vessels near the strait, where tanker traffic has been largely paused for days because of concerns that drones or missiles could hit merchant ships.
Oil prices rose, while U.S. stock futures were slightly lower on Wednesday amid continuing attacks on Iran and Iranian retaliatory strikes targeted at Israel and American allies in the region. Investors across the world are keenly focused on the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway between Iran and Oman that separates the world’s biggest oil and natural gas producers from their customers. The strait carries one-fifth of the world’s oil and a significant amount of natural gas. Traffic through the strait has been effectively halted because of the risk that vessels could be attacked. On Tuesday, the U.S. military said its forces had attacked 16 Iranian mine-laying vessels near the strait. Trump administration officials have suggested the possibility of naval escorts for commercial vessels to mitigate the danger.
It has been another wild day of trading in oil markets.
Futures for Brent crude, the global benchmark, dropped 11% to $87.80 a barrel, deepening a decline that began after they briefly surged to their highest intraday level since 2022.
Behind the slide: hopes the world’s biggest economies will release strategic oil reserves and comments from President Trump signaling a limit to the duration of hostilities.
Oil's decline helped boost stocks around the world on Tuesday, though U.S. indexes trimmed gains and crude pared declines after a social media post from Energy Secretary Chris Wright saying the U.S. Navy had successfully escorted a tanker through the Strait of Hormuz was deleted. The Navy isn’t now escorting commercial ships through the strait, according to the White House and a spokesman for U.S. Central Command.
From the capture of Venezuela’s Nicol?s Maduro to the war in the Middle East, 2026 has served as a powerful reminder of oil’s enduring influence in geopolitics and the global economy.
Oil has been both a prize, as in Venezuela, and a potent tool of political coercion, as seen in the U.S. blockade that is starving Cuba of energy. And now, after oil breached $100 a barrel for the first time in almost four years, the economic risks of going even a short time without full access to energy from the Persian Gulf are becoming clearer by the day.
With oil front and center, it feels almost like revisiting an earlier time, before countries began embracing renewable energy and before the United States became the world’s biggest producer of oil and natural gas.
There is little sign that the war with Iran will cause the kind of economic pain experienced about a half-century ago, when oil met almost half of the world’s energy needs and an embargo by members of an oil cartel caused prices to quadruple in a matter of months. That tipped the U.S. economy into a period of high inflation and stagnant economic growth. But it is clear that going without as much oil and natural gas as the world is used to, even briefly, will strain economies around the world.
