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Beyond the Strait of Hormuz: Refining Capacity and Product-Market Vulnerability

July 21, 2026 ARTICLES, Energy Market, important 0

A ship waits to pass through the Strait of Hormuz following the two-week temporary ceasefire between the US and Iran, which is conditional on the opening of the strait, in Oman on April 8, 2026. Shipping traffic remained at low levels, reported. [Shady Alassar – Anadolu Agency]

The recent disruption in the Middle East, including the closure and uneven reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, has exposed a shift in the global energy system’s principal vulnerability. Initial concern focused on whether enough crude oil could reach the market. Yet crude flows have recovered faster than supplies of …

Umud is a Washington-based Energy Strategist and Senior Foreign Policy advisor and author of US Energy Diplomacy in the Caspian Sea Basin: Changing Trends Since 2001. He is serving as Faculty Associate – at George Mason University. Umud holds a Ph.D. in International Relations. He comes with extensive expertise and professional experience in global energy market studies, energy security, the geopolitics of climate change, industrial policy for clean energy, as well as foreign policy in the context of climate change and energy transition.

His primary research interests lie in energy diplomacy and energy transition, U.S. energy policy, the geopolitics of energy, Iran-Turkey relations, as well as Iran-Russia relations, the Caspian Sea region, Central Asia and the GCC. He has written about the geopolitics of energy and natural gas, political economy of hydrocarbon states, sustainable cities and mobility, the pace and trajectory of energy transition, the geopolitics of US sanctions against Iran oil exports, and the geopolitics of energy in Europe, the Eastern Mediterranean, Middle East, Central Asia, and Caspian Sea Region.