Author: Georgi Kantchev

With its Red Sea bypass route disrupted by attacks from Yemen and Iraq, the world’s oil kingpin is returning to the waterway it was trying to avoid in the first place.

Record shipping rates through the Strait of Hormuz could offset falling crude prices.

The pipeline, which was knocked out by attacks earlier this month, is now being tested and could resume flows within days.

The kingdom said drones fired from Iraq damaged the East-West pipeline, which can carry up to 7 million barrels of oil a day.

The capture of an island and coastal town tightens the militants’ grip on the Bab al-Mandeb strait, a crucial alternative to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

The U.S. blockade and dwindling supplies already on the water are squeezing Tehran’s most important export earner.

The tanker was struck by an unknown projectile off the coast of Oman, the U.K. Maritime Trade Operations said.

Firms that count ships, oil output and imports aren’t able to verify U.S. claims about the volume of oil getting through Iran’s chokehold.

The United Arab Emirates, long Tehran’s gateway to global commerce and finance, has pledged to crack down. But it’s complicated.

The Trump administration is doubling down on sanctions and a naval blockade, while Tehran bets high oil prices will force Washington to relent.

With limited bursts of firepower, Iran is able to make the waterway too risky to cross.

President Trump’s strategy rests on an assumption that Tehran will crack before Washington, but mediators warn that Iran has been living under sanctions for years.