President Yudhoyono warns Hormuz's tensions could disturb oil supply

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono would send a letter asking the United Nations to take actions to settle the rising tension in Strait of Hormuz on Iran?s southern coast, a vital Persian Gulf oil transport route, to ensure the safe supply of oil from Middle East countries.

In the opening speech at a limited cabinet meeting on defense and security affairs at Presidential Palace on Thursday, Yudhoyono said that the tension in Strait of Hormuz could extremely impact on the world's oil price.

?It (the call to settle Hormuz tension) is merely for the (sake of) the world?s economy, including developing countries and Indonesia which are struggling to improve economic growth,? he said as quoted by the President?s website www.presidenri.go.id.

?The increase of oil price may benefit the oil producing countries but the developing countries importing oil would suffer from (financial) losses.?

Indonesia, a former member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), has been net importer of oil, including from the Middle East countries.

Located between Oman and Iran, the Strait of Hormuz connects the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. Hormuz is the world's most important oil chokepoint due to its daily oil flow of almost 17 million barrels in 2011, up from between 15.5-16.0 million bbl/d in 2009-2010. Flows through the Strait in 2011 were roughly 35percent of all seaborne traded oil, or almost 20 percent of oil traded worldwide.

Tehran has earlier warned the United States it could disrupt the traffic through the Strait of Hormuz if Washington levies new sanctions targeting Iran's crude exports. (*)