Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent predicted earlier in September that the Strait of Hormuz would be irrelevant to the oil trade in two years because overland pipelines will bypass the Persian Gulf chokepoint. In light of the Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline, Bessent’s prediction is already aging like spoiled milk.
Bessent first made the prediction in August and then doubled down at the G20 finance ministers’ meeting in Asheville, North Carolina.
“In two years, the Strait of Hormuz will be … a worthless piece of water,” he told Fox Business’ Larry Kudlow on Sept. 1, adding oil “will be going on pipelines across land” and therefore diminishing Iran’s leverage.
But the Houthis’ recent drone strikes on the Saudi pipeline show that a world in which the Strait of Hormuz is completely “worthless” might be much harder to realize.
The Houthis executed a 36-hour offensive, capturing around 2,000 square kilometers of territory, including key coastal areas along the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a vital maritime corridor for trade and oil.