During the 2026 conflict in the Middle East, the Islamic Republic of Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz. Applying network science to global supply chains during this geopolitical conflict is an excellent way to understand it`s real-world impact.

Using Flow Network to understand why and how the flow of oil would be affected. Here is how the concept map to reality:

  • Source Node(S): The oil fields where the resource originates (e.e., fields in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, UAE, etc.)
  • Sink Node(T): The global market or consumig nations (e.g., refineries in Asia, Eurpoe and the Americas)
  • Intermidiete Nodes and Links: Export terminals, pumping stations and maritime transit chokepoints; shipping lanes and overland pipelines
  • Capacities: Every edge has a maximum volume it can transport per day in millions of barrels per day.
Based on the network flow model of the Global oil supply chain, with multiple source and sink nodes, which of the following statements is true?

a) Assuming supply and demand remain constant, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz simply requires the routing algorithm to find new augmenting paths within the residual network, guaranteeing that the original maximum flow of the system remains completely unchanged.
b) Provided the Source and Sink nodes remain connected, constructing successive level graphs from the residual network guarantees that the routing algorithm will find shortest augmenting paths to perfectly redistribute the displaced volume, thereby restoring the original maximum flow.
c) When the Strait of Hormuz is removed from the flow network, the maximum flow of the entire system must decrease, because the alternative paths in the residual network will hit their strict capacity limits and saturate before they can fully absorb the displaced volume of oil.
d) Provided the Source and Sink nodes remain connected, constructing successive level graphs from the residual network guarantees that the routing algorithm will find shortest augmenting paths to perfectly redistribute the displaced volume, thereby restoring the original maximum flow.
e) None of the above

Comments

  1. Joao MeidanisApril 11, 2026 at 9:24 PM

    Nice question, but B and D are apparently the same, aren't they? I'll pass.

    ReplyDelete

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