Energy prices have soared as Iranian strikes and reports of mines prevent ships from transiting the chokepoint
Middle East crisis – live updates
More than 1,000 cargo ships, mainly oil and gas tankers, have been blocked from transiting the strait of Hormuz by the Israeli-US war against Iran after Tehran closed the key maritime passage.
Officials in the Trump administration have suggested ways to get ships moving again, but amid continued Iranian strikes on tankers, and reports that Iran has started mining the narrow waterway, the proposed naval escorts have failed to materialise – even as energy prices have soared.
The strait is the only maritime passage between the Gulf and the Gulf of Oman and the route for about a quarter of the world’s liquefied natural gas and seaborne trade from Gulf countries to reach the global market. Shipping in the chokepoint is confined to a pair of two-mile-wide lanes, one for outbound traffic and one for incoming, separated by a two-mile-wide meridian.
