The crisis surrounding the Hormuz Strait has become the largest disruption of oil supplies ever recorded. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), in March 2026, the global oil supply was reduced by approximately 10.1 million barrels per day, reaching 97.1 million barrels per day.
For comparison, previous largest oil shocks include: 1978-1979 — the Islamic Revolution in Iran — 5.6 million barrels per day, 1973-1974 — the Arab oil embargo — 4.3 million, 1990 — Iraq's invasion of Kuwait — 4.3 million, 1980-1981 — the start of the Iran-Iraq war — 4.1 million, 2003 — the Iraq war — 2.3 million, and 2011 — the Libyan civil war — about 1.5 million barrels per day.
Thus, the decline in March 2026 nearly doubled the losses recorded during the Islamic Revolution in Iran, which had previously been considered the largest oil disruption in history.
The scale of the crisis is due to the unique significance of Hormuz. Before the crisis, approximately 20 million barrels of oil and petroleum products were transported through the strait daily, accounting for nearly one-fifth of global oil consumption and about a quarter of maritime oil trade.
Options to bypass Hormuz are severely limited. Alternative export routes are primarily available to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, while Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, and Bahrain are critically dependent on the strait.
In response to the crisis, IEA member countries agreed on March 11 to release 400 million barrels of oil from strategic reserves — the largest such intervention in the agency's history.
Notably, five of the seven largest oil disruptions in modern history are related to the Middle East.
