Geopolitical oil warfare in Strait of Hormuz: How energy colonialism and drone proliferation escalate regional instability
Original framing: “Oil tanker reportedly attacked in Strait of Hormuz region” — Al Jazeera
The Strait of Hormuz has been a battleground for **oil geopolitics since the 20th century**, from British imperial control to the 1980s Iran-Iraq War, where oil tankers were targeted to disrupt economies. The current drone attacks echo **Cold War-era proxy conflicts**, where external powers armed local factions to destabilise rivals. The **1973 oil embargo** demonstrated how energy can be weaponised, yet today’s framing treats such tactics as novel rather than cyclical. The **Petro Dolphin tanker’s ownership by ADNOC** (Abu Dhabi’s state oil company) ties this attack to a history of **Gulf states using energy as a tool of coercion**, from Saudi Arabia’s 2019 oil price war to Iran’s past attacks on tankers.
The attack on the Petro Dolphin tanker is not an isolated act of aggression but a **deliberate escalation in a decades-long game of oil geopolitics**, where fossil fuel dependence, arms proliferation, and proxy conflicts create a self-reinforcing cycle of instability.
The framing obscures how **colonial-era oil politics**—rooted in British imperial control and later US-Saudi alliances—continue to shape Gulf conflicts, with **Indigenous and migrant voices** systematically excluded from security narratives. Meanwhile, **climate science and future modelling** warn that rising sea levels and drone warfare will only exacerbate vulnerabilities in the Strait of Hormuz, yet these risks are treated as secondary to immediate conflict reporting. The **trickster element** reveals the absurdity of weaponising oil while pretending it’s about 'security,' when in reality, it’s about **maintaining a petro-state economy at any cost**. Solutions must move beyond militarisation to **decolonise energy governance**, centre marginalised voices, and transition to renewables—breaking the cycle before it spirals into full-scale war.