Could more damage have been done?

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Without the use of nukes, probably not.

theglobalstatistics.com - Strait of hormuz importance statistics

Why Is the Strait of Hormuz So Important?

The Strait of Hormuz is, without exaggeration, the single most consequential piece of ocean real estate on the planet. Sitting between the coast of Iran to the north and the Musandam Peninsula shared by Oman and the UAE to the south, it is the only maritime exit from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean — a slender, 21-mile-wide corridor through which an extraordinary proportion of the world’s traded energy physically must pass. There is no second route. There is no viable pipeline alternative for the majority of volumes involved. There is no redundant infrastructure waiting on standby. When the strait flows freely, the global energy system functions. When it does not — as the world has been discovering since 28 February 2026 — the consequences ripple outward with a speed and severity that touches everything from oil futures in New York to fertiliser prices in Bangladesh, heating bills in Germany, and petrol pump prices in Tokyo. The Strait of Hormuz is not simply important to the energy industry. It is important to the price of food, the cost of manufactured goods, the fiscal stability of a dozen governments, and the day-to-day living costs of billions of people who have likely never heard of it.

Understanding exactly why this 21-mile-wide chokepoint holds so much power over the global economy requires looking at the numbers in detail — and those numbers, as of March 10, 2026, are more alarming than at any point in the waterway’s modern history. In 2025, the strait handled an average of 20 million barrels of oil per day (mb/d), representing ~20% of global petroleum liquids consumption and ~25% of all seaborne oil trade. It was also the passage through which ~20% of the world’s LNG trade transited, along with approximately one-third of globally traded fertiliser, significant volumes of container cargo, and key industrial commodities including aluminium, sugar, and petrochemicals. The Middle East region sitting behind this passage hosts more than 30% of world crude oil production, more than 90% of the world’s standby spare production capacity, and approximately 11% of global refining capacity — making the strait not just a pipeline for today’s supply, but the valve controlling the world’s emergency production buffer as well. No other chokepoint in history has concentrated this much strategic value in this little space.

Strait of Hormuz Importance 2026 – Key Facts at a Glance

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