The Suez Canal connects the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, two key shipping lanes? for the global transportation of oil. Approximately 4.5 million barrels of oil are carried through it every day. A closure of the Suez Canal, as happened during the Six Day War and which took seven years before reopening, would require traffic to sail around the tip of Africa, adding significant cost and time to journeys.

The Suez Canal is an example of a chokepoint.