Rubio’s bypass plan: Can the world escape the Strait of Hormuz chokepoint?

United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s latest remarks about the Strait of Hormuz have ignited a fierce debate over the future of global energy transit.Speaking to Fox News in an interview that aired on Saturday, Rubio projected the idea of a permanent geopolitical shift outside of the Strait of Hormuz, through which about one fifth of global seaborne oil trade passed before the start of the US-Israel war on Iran.He argued that regional states now understand that Iran, which insists it will not give up control the strategic waterway, is an active threat, necessitating a massive realignment of how energy commodities flow to markets across the world.However, economic experts and geopolitical analysts warn that redrawing the Middle East’s energy map is fraught with insurmountable logistical and security hurdles.(Al Jazeera)A strategic vision, not a quick fixTo understand the magnitude of Rubio’s vision, one must look at the sheer volume of trade passing through the waterway. According to data from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), the narrow 39-kilometre (24-mile) strait handles roughly 20 million barrels of oil per day, equating to about 20 percent of global petr...