Strait of Hormuz

The Strait of Hormuz is a waterway between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, separating Iran on its northern coast from Oman's Musandam Peninsula on the south, and forms the only sea passage connecting the Persian Gulf to the open ocean. It runs about 167 kilometers long and narrows to as little as 39 kilometers wide, with Hormuz, Qeshm and Larak islands within its waters and Bandar Abbas in Iran and Khasab in Oman among its principal settlements. In the mid-2020s an estimated one quarter of the world's seaborne oil trade and one fifth of its liquefied natural gas passed through the strait each year, making it one of the world's most strategically important maritime chokepoints for global energy supply.