The Strait of Hormuz

About twenty million barrels of oil a day used to sail through one narrow strait between Iran and Oman. This film explains why: how a collision of continents filled the Gulf with oil, how a medieval island kingdom and then Portugal taxed the same gap, how the Tanker War of the 1980s turned it into a battlefield, what the law of the sea says about passing through, and why closing it moves prices from Tokyo to Bangkok. Fold the rock, measure the gap, and close the valve yourself.

The world's oil valve

Why one strait matters to every fuel pump on Earth.

One door to the ocean

A shallow sea, eight countries, a single exit.

Two lanes

Thirty-nine kilometres is not as wide as it sounds.

An ocean of plankton

The oil began as tiny living things.

The crumple zone

Two plates collide, and the rock folds into giant traps.

The toll gate

Whoever held the island held the till.

Portugal takes the gate

A European empire learns the value of a chokepoint.

Oil

A trade route becomes the world's fuel line.

The Tanker War

Two countries at war try to choke each other's oil money.

Convoys and mines

The world's navies arrive.

Ten ships a day

Where the oil goes, and what it rides in.

Closing the valve

Two pipelines around it, and not nearly enough room.

Whose water?

A right to pass, and a dispute about who has it.

Who stands at the door

The geology will not change. The people at the door do.

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