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Oil supply shifts beyond Hormuz as other chokepoints take strain
U.S. EIA data cited by OilPrice says only 4.9 million barrels per day of crude and liquids cleared in the second quarter, versus 21.6 million barrels per day in the last quarter of 2025.
For roughly six months, oil logistics pressures have centered on the Strait of Hormuz, which has been effectively closed since late February amid the war between Iran and the U.S. and Israel, according to OilPrice. The outlet cites U.S. EIA estimates that only 4.9 million barrels a day of crude and liquids made it through in the second quarter, down sharply from 21.6 million barrels per day in the last quarter of 2025.
With shipments rerouted rather than disappearing, the bottleneck issue has shifted to other narrow routes that were already busy, OilPrice notes. The article frames the key near term question as what is happening beyond Hormuz, where additional traffic can raise shipping costs and disrupt supply chains.
OilPrice says rerouting has forced crude flows toward alternative loading points and transit routes. It highlights that when Hormuz shut, Riyadh moved exports about 800 miles west, shifting Gulf-origin crude to the East West pipeline toward Yanbu on the Red Sea coast, where loading surged to around 240,000 barrels per day.
The outlet also describes how the broader chokepoint picture includes multiple alternatives that are actively affected, alongside Hormuz, and it lists them in rough order of how likely they are to disrupt quarterly results. In the background of those reroutes, OilPrice reports spot levels around Wednesday as Brent at about $91.62 and WTI near $85.56.
Latest closeWTI crude $82.40 ▲1.4%|Brent $88.59 ▲1.8%