Iran cannot take a unilateral decision to close Strait of Hormuz – NPA boss

 The Chief Executive Officer of National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Godwin Edudzi Tamakloe has said Iran would face stiff opposition from Oman and other international countries if it attempts to unilaterally close the Strait of Hormuz.

According to Mr. Tamakloe, a complete closure of the Strait of Hormuz is extremely unlikely, highlighting the important geopolitical and economic interests involved.

Speaking in an interview on TV3 New Day’s The Big Issue, Monday, June 23, 2025 Mr. Tamakloe believes that Iran cannot take a sole decision to stop the transport of oil along the Strait because there are too many interests involved.

“The immediate fear is the threat to close the Strait. If you look at the geology of the place, it is Iran and Oman so Iran cannot take a unilateral decision that we are completely closing that end.

“You notice that Iran is on one side and Oman is on one side, so Oman will not permit because once they use that, it is income to those countries because the ships and others pay for the use of that end so what is going to happen is that Oman is not going to allow for a unilateral decision to just close that end completely,” he said.

Following the U.S bomb attack against Iran’s nuclear sites over the weekend, the country has threatened to shut down Strait of Hormuz, which experts say would lead to grave consequences on supply of crude oil globally.

The Strait of Hormuz, located between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, is particularly important because it provides the only sea passage from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean for the supply of huge volumes of oil produced in that region to several parts of the world.

The Strait of Hormuz, a critical maritime chokepoint, is geographically bordered by Iran on one side and Oman on the other.

Nearly 20 million barrels of oil, about one-fifth of daily global production, flow through the strait every day, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).

“And so what is going to happen is that Oman is not going to allow for a unilateral decision to just close that end completely again, like I pointed out, the Chinese had a lot of interest in terms of movements of goods and other services, or, eh, movements of goods more or less to the Chinese and other South Asian countries. And so they also have an interest in ensuring that the passage is not closed,” he said during a discussion on TV3 on Monday, June 23.

China, as the world’s largest crude oil importer, relies heavily on this route, with roughly one-third of its oil imports originating from Gulf producers and 80% of flows through Hormuz destined for Asian markets.

Europe and Russia have significantly increased their reliance on Middle Eastern diesel, with approximately 850,000 barrels per day now transiting through the Strait of Hormuz to the continent.

This makes Europe highly vulnerable to any disruption in the supply of oil. Among other things, China uses the Strait to transport goods, it is also easier for European countries to transport goods through the Strait, hence these parties would all seek for a de-escalation of the conflict rather than the shutdown of the Strait.

“I want to activate my believe in the sense that China, Russia are critical allies of Iran. Chine depends a lot on its crude consumption on Iran. I’ve already read in the news, interventions from Putin, the Chinese leaders among others to keep that particular place open up for further transport.

“Again, like I pointed out the Chinese have a lot of interest like the movement of goods and other services. And so they also have an interest to ensure that the passage is not closed and so there are a lot of interest involved and more importantly, the Europeans as well because beyond crude, it is easier for you to also move liquified natural gas and others to Europe to power households and others around that corridor, so completely having it close will be quite uninteresting,” Mr Tamakloe added.

Mr Tamakloe noted that upon monitoring the emergency UN Security Council meeting held on Saturday evening, he got the impression that regional actors are leaning towards de-escalation rather than an escalation of the conflict.

“On Saturday evening, there was an emergency UN Security Council meeting; that’s right, I observed it because my mind is on these matters in recent times. From the US security council meeting, it does appear that there’s a greater call for diplomatic intervention than a full-blown, full-scale war within the region.”

“Thankfully, Oman, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and co., within the region appear to have adopted a strategy for less military intervention.”

The NPA boss cautioned that serious danger to global oil supplies would occur if the entire Gulf region were to be involved in conflict, thereby affecting oil production itself.

“The danger is if the whole Gulf region is engulfed in war, then production itself will be affected. Now, if production itself is affected, that is when the problem will become much more serious.”

Despite the underlying tensions, Mr Tamakloe remains confident that diplomacy will prevail.

“So at this point, all we can pray for is the key leaders within the region to come together to de-escalate the current conflict and more or less find a more diplomatic solution to it. And I’m very confident that this one, there’s a higher possibility of it coming closer or down than what we are seeing, say, like Russia, Ukraine.”