đ¨đēđ¸đŽđˇ What six months of war has done to the Strait of Hormuz...
-Traffic collapsed from about 130 vessels a day before the war to an average of 15 a day in August
-Both sides imposed rival routes, Iran hugging its own shoreline and the U.S. running a channel along the Omani coast, where most attacks have landed
-Shipping a supertanker from the Gulf to China now costs more than $500,000 a day, double the prewar rate, driven by insurance and a shrinking pool of willing operators
-Houthi threats in the Red Sea pushed some Saudi cargoes around to Suez, adding roughly 30 days to Asian deliveries
-Iranian crude and condensate exports fell to about 280,000 barrels a day in May from over 2.2 million in February
-The UAE, Kuwait and Iraq are pouring billions into new pipelines, trucking, rail and ports to route around the chokepoint entirely
-The U.S. struck more than 13,000 targets and destroyed most of Iran's navy, though the fast attack boats that police the strait survived
-Gas went from $2.98 to about $4 a gallon, with the Strategic Petroleum Reserve at its lowest level since the 1980s
The forecasts of $150 oil never landed, and crude sits near $80, partly because China cut its imports and partly because the Gulf found workarounds faster than anyone expected.
That resilience is real. What it cost is a permanently redrawn map, with billions in pipeline spending, a new Turkish, Saudi and Pakistani defense pact, and global inflation turning back up to 4.7% after two years of falling.
Source: The Wall Street Journal / Writer: Daniel