- the US doesn't have to sit IN the Malacca Straits, but oil traffic does HAVE to go that way. The US can park naval assets in the middle of the Indian Ocean, and intercept traffic coming out of the Middle East from the Arabian Sea. They have satellites and tracking to enforce a wide area of denial, far from missile intercept.

- oil pipelines, railroads, and other continental transport modes, in addition to being more expensive, slower, and limited in bandwidth, and extremely vulnerable to sabotage, political interference from countries they have to go through, etc.

- submarines