Gas and diesel prices are displayed at a Pilot Travel Center on March 17, 2026 in Pyote, Texas. — Brandon Bell/Getty Images North America
The near-total halt of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz — the crucial waterway through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas normally flows — has produced a catastrophic disruption in oil markets. Crude has climbed above $110 a barrel, and U.S. gasoline prices have risen along with it.
Policymakers and energy markets have several tools they are using to try to blunt the pain. But those options have limited reach and cannot quickly replace the volume trapped by the closure of the strait.
Spare capacity is in the wrong places
In a typical supply shock, buyers turn to producers with spare capacity — oil that can be brought online without drilling new wells. OPEC members like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have such capacity because they voluntarily produce less than they could. But that spare production sits on the Persian Gulf side of the Strait of Hormuz. If ships cannot transit the strait, that spare oil is effectively stranded. “Spare capacity is only as good as the ability to get the oil out of where it’s being produced,” says Ellen Wald, author of Saudi, Inc.
Pipelines can only transport so much crude
Some crude can be rerouted. Saudi Arabia and the UAE have pipelines taking oil to the Red Sea or around the Gulf, allowing shipments via the Suez Canal or into the Mediterranean. But pipeline capacity is limited. Dan Pickering of Pickering Energy Partners estimates about 20 million barrels a day are affected by the Hormuz disruption; roughly 5 million barrels are finding ways around the strait, leaving a roughly 15-million-barrel-a-day shortfall.
Stockpiles can only be tapped so fast
Major oil-consuming countries keep strategic reserves for crises, and they are using them. The International Energy Agency’s 32 member countries announced a coordinated release — the largest-ever collective drawdown — totaling more than 400 million barrels in planned contributions. But stockpile releases require logistics: sales must be arranged and oil must move through terminals, pipelines and tankers. Bob McNally of Rapidan Energy estimates reserves can be put into the market at a pace of roughly 2 million barrels per day. That helps, McNally says, but it doesn’t close a hole measured in the tens of millions of barrels per day.
Waiving the Jones Act has a tiny effect
The U.S. temporarily waived the Jones Act — which normally requires ships moving goods between U.S. ports to be U.S.-built, -owned and -crewed — to ease domestic movements of gasoline from Gulf Coast refineries to other U.S. coasts. That can shave a few cents off pump prices in some regions by improving distribution, but it is not a major supply fix. McNally calls it helpful but only a modest brake on rising prices.
Sanctions waivers are a partial measure
The U.S. has already eased some restrictions on Russian crude to facilitate shipments to buyers such as India, and has even discussed waiving sanctions on Iranian oil as an extraordinary measure during the conflict — a politically fraught idea that would boost revenue to a country it is at war with. Trade and cargo-tracking firms say loosening sanction constraints can provide a near-term logistical buffer — perhaps meeting around a million barrels a day of shortfall — but not enough to substitute for the volumes blocked at Hormuz.
Export bans would hamper U.S. refineries
Proposals to ban U.S. oil exports aim to keep more crude at home and lower domestic prices. But the U.S. produces mainly light, sweet crude while many U.S. refineries are configured to process heavier, sour grades that the country imports. Cutting exports would create a mismatch between available crude and refinery configurations, causing disruption and likely inefficiencies rather than a simple price fix.
Waiving gasoline taxes could help — and could backfire
Some states are considering temporary gas tax holidays (Georgia has debated a 33-cent-per-gallon suspension). Such measures would reduce pump prices slightly for consumers, but if multiple states did the same, lower taxes could raise demand and actually push prices back up. The short-term relief could therefore be eroded by higher consumption.
Allowing less-restrictive fuel blends would save a few cents
The Environmental Protection Agency could temporarily relax requirements for “summer gasoline,” a costlier blend designed to limit pollution in warm months. Analysts estimate that switching to the winter blend in some places could save roughly 10 to 30 cents per gallon depending on location. That would lower prices modestly but at the cost of increased emissions and worsened air quality when driving and heat-driven evaporative losses increase.
In sum: the hole is just too big
Even combining all these measures, governments cannot easily replace the 15 million barrels a day that can’t move through the Strait of Hormuz. “Fifteen million barrels a day isn’t easy to offset anywhere,” Pickering says — that’s roughly the total production of the United States, the world’s leading producer. Small logistical fixes and releases from reserves can blunt the rise and buy time, but they do not replace the underlying supply that has been blocked.
Restoring flow through the Strait of Hormuz would be the most direct way to relieve markets. Until that happens, most policy options are piecemeal — helpful in parts, limited in scale, and often carrying trade-offs such as higher emissions, supply mismatches, or political consequences.