Two boys ride paddleboards in the sea while a boat is anchored near the coastline on April 22, 2026 in Bandar Abbas, Iran.
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baker hughes Executives at an influential oilfield services company said Friday they were working under the assumption that the Strait of Hormuz may not fully reopen for months.
Baker’s financial guidance assumes the U.S.-Iranian conflict will last until the end of June and that the Strait may not be fully operational until the second half of this year, Chief Financial Officer Ahmed Moghal told investors on the company’s first-quarter earnings call.
“Ultimately there is still a lot of uncertainty regarding the duration and depth of the conflict,” Moghar said.
Baker is one of the world’s most influential oil drilling companies with extensive business in the Middle East. The assumption that the Strait may not reopen for several months is widely shared in the energy industry.
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A Dallas Fed survey of nearly 100 oil and gas industry executives found that nearly 80% believe the strait will not reopen until after August. The Dallas Fed Energy Survey found that more than 80% of executives surveyed see a moderate or very high chance of future disruption to the Strait.
Baker Hughes CEO Lorenzo Simonelli said that after the Iran war, “geopolitical risk has become a structural reality for oil and gas markets.” Simonelli said the strait closure affected 10% of the world’s oil volumes and disrupted 20% of global liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies.
The CEO said this was likely to result in a “continued risk premium for oil and LNG prices.”
The strait is one of the world’s most important trade routes, particularly for the energy market, with approximately 20% of the world’s oil supplies passing through the sea lane before the war. Iran blocked exports through the strait by attacking tankers, causing the largest oil supply disruption in history.
As the conflict enters its eighth week, tanker traffic through the strait remains very light. The United States and Iran have seized a commercial ship in an attempt to enforce competing blockades in and around the strait during a fragile cease-fire agreement.
Correction: Baker Hughes assumes in its financial guidance that the Strait of Hormuz will not reopen until the second half of 2026. A previous version of this article did not provide such background.
