Barrels Per Day

The Strait of Hormuz carried approximately 21 million Barrels Per Day before the 2026 conflict, representing roughly 20% of global oil supply and close to a third of all seaborne crude. As of 13 April, commercial traffic has collapsed to around 8% of pre-war baseline: Kpler recorded just 5 transits on 9 April and 7 on 10 April against a pre-war daily count of 120 to 140 vessels. Saudi Arabia's restoration of the East-West Petroline pipeline to full capacity of 7 million bpd on 12 April offers the largest single bypass route, but cannot compensate for the 13 to 14 million bpd gap related event.

Barrels Per Day (bpd) is the standard unit for measuring oil production, throughput, and supply. One barrel equals 42 US gallons or approximately 159 litres. Global consumption runs at roughly 100 million bpd. The figures most relevant to the Iran conflict: Hormuz pre-war throughput was 21 million bpd; the IEA assessed Gulf production down by at least 10 million bpd; the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo removed approximately 5 million bpd, less than half of the current disruption. The Fujairah bypass in the UAE was at 71% utilisation before the blockade announcement, providing limited additional relief.

The gap between pre-war Hormuz throughput and current near-zero is the number that explains oil prices above a barrel, the US blockade declaration, and 325 tankers stranded in the Gulf. Every bpd figure in the news coverage maps directly onto a share of global supply. When a bypass restores 7 million bpd, that is one-third of what Hormuz carried; when production is down 10 million bpd, that is larger than Saudi Arabia's entire output .