Oil jumps over 2% as Iran threatens supplies - Dec. 27, 2011
Oil prices jumped over 2% Tuesday, crossing the $100-barrel-mark after Iran threatened to choke off the flow of oil passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
The Iranian threat came in response to a recent tightening of Western sanctions against Iran that attempt to limit the amount of oil that country can export.
“If Iran oil is banned, not a single drop of oil will pass through Hormuz Strait,” Iran’s 1st Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi said Tuesday, according to the Iran State News Agency.
Iran is also currently conducting Naval exercises in and around the Strait.
Over 15 million barrels of oil a day passed through the Strait in 2009, according to the U.S. Energy Information Agency. That’s about a sixth of the world’s total oil production and a third of all oil traded worldwide. EIA calls it the “world’s most important oil chokepoint.”