Why This Tiny Strait Controls a Fifth of the World's Oil

A channel just 33 km wide at its narrowest carries about a fifth of the world's oil. On one side is Iran; on the other, a rocky Omani peninsula cut off from the rest of its own country. So how did one small strait end up holding the world's fuel supply in its hands, and what happens, whether you call it petrol or gas, when it closes? In this video we explore the geography of the Strait of Hormuz: Musandam's fjord-like inlets, the ring of Iranian islands that watch the shipping lanes, why the Gulf sits on so much oil, the Tanker War and Operation Praying Mantis, the pipelines built to go around it, and the 2026 crisis that brought traffic almost to a stop. Subscribe to Unlikely Latitudes for the geography behind the world's strangest places. CHAPTERS 0:00 Intro 0:32 1. The narrowest door on the oil map 1:56 2. Oman's detached peninsula 3:07 3. A ring of Iranian islands 4:12 4. Why the oil is here 5:31 5. A fifth of the world in one lane 7:29 6. The Tanker War 8:45 7. The pipelines that go around 10:08 8. The strait goes quiet 11:51 9. Blockade, escorts and a fragile deal 13:19 10. Clearing the water 14:50 Closing CREDITS Satellite imagery: NASA GIBS (Blue Marble, HLS Sentinel-2) Elevation: Terrain Tiles (Mapzen, AWS Open Data: SRTM, GMTED2010, ETOPO1); EU-DEM produced using Copernicus data funded by the European Union Stock footage: Pexels, Envato (BlackBoxGuild) Music: Epidemic Sound Photos via Wikimedia Commons unless stated (licences: creativecommons.org/licenses): Musandam from the air: Rita Willaert, CC BY 2.5 Musandam fjord: Jc8136, CC BY-SA 3.0 Musandam inlets (dhow trip): Robert Haandrikman, CC BY 2.0 Khasab: Riyadh Al Balushi, CC BY-SA 2.0 Geirangerfjord, Norway: Ximonic (Simo Räsänen), CC BY-SA 3.0 Qeshm Island; Hormuz Island red soil: Qeshmnil, CC BY-SA 4.0 Bandar Abbas: Hasanbardal, CC BY-SA 4.0 Arabian Plate map: Sting and Woudloper, CC BY-SA 3.0 Anticline oil trap diagram: Oceanh, CC BY 3.0 Ras Laffan LNG terminal: Matthew Smith, CC BY 2.0 Kronborg Castle: Hagai Agmon-Snir, CC BY-SA 4.0 Moored sea mine: George E. Koronaios, CC BY-SA 4.0 Ever Given: kees torn, CC BY-SA 2.0 Wall Street: Alex Proimos, CC BY 2.0 City of London: GillyBerlin, CC BY 2.0 Pexels photos: Александр Лич; Dmitriy Ryndin; Zifeng Xiong Public domain: Strait of Hormuz and Gulf at night from the ISS (NASA; Tim Kopra); Zagros salt dome (NASA); Ghawar rig move, 1960s (Aramco); Sassan platform burning, Samuel B. Roberts damage, Earnest Will convoy (US Navy); NYSE trading floor (Thomas J. O'Halloran, Library of Congress); flags of the United States and Israel #StraitOfHormuz #Geography #Oil #Iran #Oman #PersianGulf #History #Documentary