Skip to content
One story. Every day. Told completely.
Edition No. 26· Today's briefing
IllustrationHindsite · Editorial Art

The global economy's most expensive chokepoint

Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz has become the largest energy disruption since the 1970s—and the shockwaves extend far beyond oil.

### The numbers that define a crisis

When Iran's Revolutionary Guard moved to restrict traffic through the Strait of Hormuz on 28 February 2026, the immediate impact was staggering. Multiple outlets report that crude oil shipments dropped by nearly 70% within days [5, 17, 18, 19, 21, 23, 24, 30], with over 150 vessels anchoring outside the strait to avoid the gauntlet of Iranian naval patrols. The closure affects roughly 20% of the world's daily oil supply and substantial volumes of liquefied natural gas [17, 18, 19, 24]—a disruption that Wikipedia and French-language sources describe as the largest to global energy supplies since the 1970s oil crisis [6, 17, 18, 19, 23, 26, 30].

Continue reading

The current edition and the six preceding it are free. Subscribe for the full archive, every audio edition, and the daily email.

Subscribe
Friday, 12 June 2026Browse archive →
The global economy's most expensive chokepoint — Hindsite