“The Strait of Hormuz has been effectively shut with Iran attacking vessels and its Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, vowing to keep it blocked,” Roshneesh Kmaneck summarized yesterday, at Firstpost. “This has led to panic about the supply of oil and natural gas. Countries are now scrambling for alternative routes. But experts note that none of the options can replace the oil normally shipped through the critical Gulf chokepoint.”
Roughly 20 percent of global petroleum production is in jeopardy. While Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates can work around the obstruction using a pipeline, Iraq and Kuwait and other major users of the passage cannot:
Rep. Tim Burchett’s comment, quoted by Paul Jacob on this site yesterday, remains of course completely unaffected by the addition of other countries’ supplies passing through the region. “How much oil does America get from Iran? Zero.” Well, North America gets about 2.5 percent of all of the Hormuz-squeezed oil (not exactly zero, but close). Regardless, the economics of supplies and demands worldwide still contribute to the determination of gas prices in America.
And Burchett remains a bonehead. No update required on that.