If the global energy crisis now unfolding could be distilled into a single figure, it would be the staggering gap between the roughly 20 million barrels per day that typically flow through the Middle East and the volume currently being moved through improvised alternative routes, barely 40% of normal levels.
In ordinary times, the Strait of Hormuz is far more than a shipping lane; it is a central artery of the global economy. Roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil consumption and a quarter of all seaborne energy trade pass through it. It is…
