Qatar’s energy minister tells Scott Bessent he’s wrong about the Strait of Hormuz

Scott Bessent looked into a Fox Business camera on September 1 and declared that the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway separating Iran from the Arabian Peninsula, would become “a worthless piece of water” within two years. Qatar’s Energy Minister Saad al-Kaabi has a different assessment: Bessent is simply wrong. The disagreement isn’t academic. Roughly 34% of the world’s crude oil passed through the Strait of Hormuz in 2025, according to the IEA. That makes it the single most important chokepoint in global energy markets. The Bessent thesis and Qatar’s rebuttal Bessent’s argument rests on a straightforward premise: pipeline capacity expansions by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Iraq will reroute enough oil volume by 2027 to render the Strait irrelevant as a strategic chokepoint. Al-Kaabi has been vocal about the Strait’s enduring importance. Back in May 2026, he stated plainly that “everybody is obligated to open the Strait of Hormuz for the economies of the world.” His latest comments escalate that position further, warning that any geopolitical disruption to operations in the area could send oil prices surging to $150 per barrel. Qatar has a particularly personal stake in this deb...