Persian Gulf naming dispute Strait of Hormuz as "Basora Fretum" (Strait of Basra). Among all this confusion, the old name gradually reasserted itself in the 17th century, but Turkey still uses the name "Gulf of Basra" in Turkish today. Following British attempts to control the seaway in the late 1830s, the "Times Journal", published in London in 1840, referred to the Persian Gulf as the "Britain Sea", but this name was never used in any other context. The matter remains very contentious as the competing naming conventions are supported by certain governments in internal literature, but also in dealings with other states and international
Persian Gulf petrochemical industry. In 2002, the Persian Gulf nations of Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE produced about 25% of the world's oil, held nearly two-thirds of the world's crude oil reserves, and about 35% of the world's natural gas reserves. The oil-rich countries (excluding Iraq) that have a coastline on the Persian Gulf are referred to as the "Persian Gulf States". Iraq's egress to the gulf is narrow and easily blockaded consisting of the marshy river delta of the Shatt al-Arab, which carries the waters of the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers, where the east bank