Oil Prices Expected to Spike as Iran Declares Strait of Hormuz ‘Effectively Closed’

Two oil tankers and an Omani port were attacked, pausing tanker traffic in a waterway where more than 20 percent of the world’s oil is exported.

A boat approaches a container ship while crusing in the waters of the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Khasab, in Oman, on June 25, 2025. GIUSEPPE CACACE/AFP via Getty Images

Crude oil and gasoline prices are expected to spike when trading resumes Monday as Strait of Hormuz tanker traffic slows to a trickle amid warnings from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) that the vital waterway, where more than 20 percent of the world’s oil is exported from the Persian Gulf, is “effectively closed.”

“Due to the insecure conditions around the strait resulting from the U.S. and Israeli military aggression and Iran’s responses, passage through the strait is currently unsafe,” the IRGC said in a Feb. 28 statement.