The Strait of Hormuz is the most consequential 33 kilometres in global energy. Roughly a fifth of the world's oil and a significant share of its LNG pass through it every day. The countries that border it know this. The firms that trade through it know this. And yet, every time the strait becomes a flashpoint, the market behaves as though the risk is new.
It is not new. But the current episode has features that make it worth examining more carefully than the standard geopolitical risk framework suggests.
