Before the closure of the Strait of Hormuz – which has been closed to commercial shipping traffic since Feb. 28 – about 25% of the world’s seaborne oil trade and 20% of global LNG passed through the 21-nautical-mile passage between Iran and Oman. Those flows have now collapsed to merely a trickle. As of May 1, outbound crude oil shipments were down 95%, LNG by 99% and fertilizer-related cargoes by 87%, according to the World Trade Organization’s Strait of Hormuz tracker. The collapse spans every vessel category, with IMF PortWatch data showing total transit trade volume through the strait, which ran at roughly 3.5 to ... (full story)