Maritime Oil Transit Network (Persian Gulf • Hormuz • Bypass Routes)
Tanker Transit
Land Pipelines
Hormuz Chokepoint
Hormuz Chokepoint Dynamics
The Strait of Hormuz connects the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and Arabian Sea. Under normal operations, approximately 20–21 MBD of petroleum liquids transits the channel daily, representing ~21% of total world petroleum liquids consumption. When disruptions occur, non-linear tanker congestion ripples through global refiners in Asia-Pacific (82% of Hormuz oil) and Europe.
Bypass Pipeline Resilience
Only Saudi Arabia and the UAE possess operational pipelines that can bypass Hormuz: the East-West Petroline (746 miles to Yanbu on the Red Sea, 5.0 MBD normal / 7.0 MBD surge) and the Habshan-Fujairah pipeline (1.5 MBD capacity). Combined realistic bypass capacity is 6.5 MBD.
Sources & Reference Data:
Walter Bloomberg (@DeItaone) •
U.S. EIA World Oil Transit Chokepoints •
EIA Petroleum Supply Monthly •
Energy Elasticity: Short-run demand elasticity ~ -0.08 with non-linear disruption scaling.