Question 1

Is the Strait of Hormuz open today?

Accepted Answer

As of the latest IMF PortWatch satellite data, the Strait of Hormuz is effectively CLOSED to commercial traffic. Ship arrivals are running at about 4 per day (7-day average), roughly 6% of the pre-crisis ~74/day. This is roughly day 229 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

1,495 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 closed — roughly day 229 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.