Saudi Arabia is piping some oil to its Red Sea ports, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has a pipeline to terminals on its small patch of coast that faces the Gulf of Oman, beyond the Strait of Hormuz.
But the rest of the world has still lost around 20% of its usual supply of oil and gas, as well as other vital exports.
Keeping the Strait closed spells disaster for much of the world economy. The US no longer depends on Gulf oil, but petrol prices in America are still set by the global oil market.
Donald Trump is in a bind. He is enmeshed in the consequences of the gross blunder he made by going to war assuming an easy victory.
The US president and his close ally Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel fatally underestimated the degree to which the Islamic regime was prepared to resist and ride out their attacks.
Trump has no easy way out and the Iranian regime wants to keep it that way.
He needs to get the Strait reopened. The war against Iran is deeply unpopular in the US and re-escalating it will turn even more Americans against it.
Trump’s problem is that the concessions Iran will require to reopen the Strait are opposed by hawks in his own Republican Party and by his own desire to parade a victory.
The US president is deeply allergic to any adverse comparison between any deal he makes with Iran, even an arrangement to extend the ceasefire for more talks, and the nuclear deal made under Barack Obama in 2015. Trump condemned it and in his first term in the White House pulled the US out.
Iran’s rulers believe with some justification that they are fighting for the existence of their regime.
It is pretty clear that more strikes from the US with or without Israel are not going to budge them on that.