Strait of Hormuz
With the prospect of Israel bombing Iran's nuclear facilities looming, Tehran has renewed its threat to shut down the strategic Strait of Hormuz, through which up to 40 percent of the world's oil supplies pass, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.
The strait is a 112-mile-long, horseshoe-shaped, six-mile wide strategic water
passageway located between Iran to the north and the United Arab Emirates to the south. It is one of the world's most strategic – and vulnerable – shipping chokepoints.
Through it, two-fifths of the world's oil supply pass en route to consumers. On any given day, some 15 giant oil tankers reportedly carry 17 million barrels of oil.
While the threat from Iranian authorities isn't new, the fact that it could be blocked, even temporarily, comes at a bad time for the world economy in which a spike in energy prices, even for a short time, could have a detrimental impact. ....
