Question 1

Is the Strait of Hormuz open today?

Accepted Answer

As of the latest IMF PortWatch satellite data, the Strait of Hormuz is SEVERELY RESTRICTED — only a trickle of traffic is getting through. Ship arrivals are running at about 12 per day (7-day average), roughly 16% of the pre-crisis ~74/day. This is roughly day 148 of the disruption that began on 28 Feb 2026.

Question 2

Is the Strait of Hormuz situation getting better or worse?

Accepted Answer

The dashboard shows a live 7-day trajectory: whether AIS-observed oil-export throughput is rising (de-escalating) or falling (escalating) week-on-week.

Question 3

Can Iran close the Strait of Hormuz?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The strait's two shipping lanes pass through Iranian and Omani territorial waters at their narrowest (~21 nautical miles wide, with two ~2-mile-wide lanes). Iran's IRGC Navy can interdict, mine, or harass traffic — which is what occurred in the 2026 crisis, when Iran formally declared the strait closed on 4 March 2026 following the late-February US/Israel air war. A sustained closure is militarily difficult to hold against US/coalition naval forces, but even the threat sharply reduces commercial transits and spikes oil prices.

Question 4

How much oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz?

Accepted Answer

About 20 million barrels per day of crude oil, condensate, and refined products — roughly 20% of global petroleum consumption and the single most important oil chokepoint in the world. Around 20% of the world's LNG (mostly from Qatar) also transits Hormuz. About 84% of the crude that exits the strait goes to Asia (China, India, Japan, South Korea). Source: US EIA.

Question 5

How many ships passed through the Strait of Hormuz in the last 24 hours?

Accepted Answer

5 unique vessels were detected by AIS in the Strait of Hormuz region in the last 24 hours, with 0 loaded oil tankers observed transiting eastbound (vs ~30/day before the crisis). The live count by direction and flag is shown on this dashboard and at /recent-crossings.

Question 6

What happens to oil prices if the Strait of Hormuz closes?

Accepted Answer

Prices spike sharply. When the strait was closed in early March 2026, Brent crude topped $100/barrel for the first time in four years and peaked near $118-120. Removing ~20 mbpd of supply (~20% of the world's oil) cannot be fully offset: bypass pipelines (Saudi East-West ~5 mbpd, UAE ADCOP ~1.5 mbpd, Iraq-Turkey) provide only ~3.5-5.5 mbpd of spare capacity. Live Brent, WTI, and Dubai prices are tracked at /oil.

Question 7

Are there alternative oil routes that bypass the Strait of Hormuz?

Accepted Answer

Yes, but with limited spare capacity: the Saudi East-West (Petroline, ~5 Mbpd to Yanbu), UAE Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline (ADCOP, ~1.5 Mbpd to Fujairah), Iran Goreh-Jask, and the Iraq-Turkey Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline. Combined spare bypass capacity is only ~3.5-5.5 Mbpd against the ~20 Mbpd that normally transits the strait — see /pipelines for live utilization.

Question 8

When will the Strait of Hormuz reopen?

Accepted Answer

As of today the Strait of Hormuz is severely restricted — roughly day 148 of the disruption that began on 28 Feb 2026. No firm reopening date is set; energy analysts and prediction markets expect flows to normalize once a durable ceasefire holds. This dashboard's verdict is computed live from IMF PortWatch satellite data and observed AIS transits, so it flips to OPEN automatically when traffic returns — see /crisis-timeline for the latest developments.

Question 9

Which countries are most affected by a Strait of Hormuz closure?

Accepted Answer

On the export side: Saudi Arabia, UAE, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, and Iran. On the import side, Asia is most exposed — China, India, Japan, and South Korea together take roughly 69% of Hormuz crude. Flag-state and country-exposure breakdowns are tracked at /countries.