Strait of Hormuz transits and Strait of Bab Al-Mandeb transits

The Strait of Hormuz is the only sea passage out of the Persian Gulf. Iran sits on the northern shore; Oman's Musandam peninsula and the UAE sit on the south. Inbound and outbound shipping lanes are each two miles wide, with a two-mile buffer between them.

It is the world's most important oil chokepoint. In a typical year, about one-fifth of global petroleum liquids consumption — and a comparable share of seaborne LNG, much of it from Qatar — moves through this corridor. Crude from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, the UAE, and Iran has no alternative waterway to open ocean.

Because so much energy trade is concentrated in a few miles of water, disruption shows up immediately in tanker routing, war-risk insurance, and oil prices. The transit counts on this page track daily cargo and tanker movements through the strait, including U.S.-facilitated transits drawn from military and AIS data.

The Bab Al-Mandeb (also spelled Bab el-Mandeb; Arabic for "Gate of Tears") is the strait at the southern end of the Red Sea. Yemen lies on the Arabian side; Djibouti and Eritrea on the Horn of Africa. Perim Island splits the passage into a two-mile eastern channel and a wider western channel.

It is the southern gate of the Suez Canal route. Container ships, tankers, and bulk carriers travelling between Europe, the Mediterranean, and Asia must pass here unless they divert around the Cape of Good Hope — adding roughly 10–14 days and thousands of nautical miles. In a typical year the corridor carries millions of barrels of oil a day plus a large share of global container traffic.

Attacks on Red Sea shipping have shown how quickly Bab Al-Mandeb disruption reroutes world trade. The figures on this page count daily vessel transits through the strait alongside the Strait of Hormuz, so the two chokepoints can be compared directly.