The United Arab Emirates is fast-tracking the construction of a new pipeline which will double the export capacity through Fujairah, a port city in the country’s east, as Gulf nations seek to bypass the Strait of Hormuz. Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed announced the acceleration of the West-East Pipeline project to “meet global demands”, at an executive meeting held by the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) on Friday.

Project Timeline and Strategic Importance

The pipeline should be operational by 2027, the government’s Abu Dhabi Media Office said. Sheikh Zayed said ADNOC is “well positioned as a responsible and reliable global energy producer, with the operational flexibility to responsibly increase production to meet market needs when export constraints allow”.

With the blockade on the Strait of Hormuz – where previously around a fifth of the world’s oil passed through – and Iran’s new maritime protocol in the waterway. The United States and Israel’s war on Iran shook global energy supply chains across the world. Well as attacks on energy infrastructure, Gulf nations have been forced to find alternative trade routes to maintain oil and gas exports.

Existing Infrastructure and Regional Impacts

Currently, the UAE has the Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline (ADCOP), a 380km (235-mile) pipeline which runs from Habshan, an oil and gas field in the south-western area of Abu Dhabi, to the port of Fujairah – which has come under attack recently. The pipeline. Which started working in 2012. Has the capacity of about 1.5 million barrels of oil per day (bpd), but it is one of the key energy routes in the Middle East.

Saudi Arabia also has the East-West pipeline, designed to export the kingdom’s oil, concentrated in the country’s east, via the west coast, which has been less affected by the Iran war. Saudi’s pipeline is 1. 200km (745 miles) long. Running from the Abqaia oil processing centre to the Yanbu port on the Red Sea; State oil giant Aramco’s Chief Executive Amin Nasser has called it a “critical lifine” for the kingdom.

Oman borders the Gulf of Oman with an extensive coastline outside the Strait of Hormuz, while Kuwait, Iraq, Qatar, and Bahrain depend almost entirely on the waterway for their trade shipments. Last month, the UAE announced its departure from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in order to focus on “national interests” — the UAE said this move was part of its “long-term strategic and economic vision and evolving energy profile”.

Strategic Implications and Economic Vision

The United Arab Emirates has announced it will complete a new oil pipeline bypassing the strait of Hormuz by next year to secure its future crude exports against the threat of disruption. The current blockade of the vital waterway, through which 20% of oil and seaborne gas flowed before the Iran war, is approaching the 11-week mark, sending energy prices soaring around the world and throttling Gulf economies.

Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Abu Dhabi’s crown prince, has directed the UAE state oil company to fast-track the previously undisclosed project so that the pipeline can begin carrying oil from the emirates to the port of Fujairah by 2027. The new pipeline is expected to double the UAE’s export capacity via the existing Habshan-Fujairah pipeline which can carry up to 1.8m barrels a day to the port on the Gulf of Oman.

This pipeline has proved central to the UAE in continuing oil exports since Iran blocked tankers passing through the strait of Hormuz shortly after the US and Israel launched attacks on 28 February. The UAE and Saudi Arabia are the only Gulf producers with pipelines that export crude outside the narrow waterway running between Iranian and Omani territory.

The decision to fast-track a second pipeline comes just weeks after the UAE quit Opec after 60 years of membership in a clear sign of a schism with Saudi Arabia, the group’s de facto leader. Leaving the oil cartel was expected to allow the UAE, the group’s third-largest oil producer, to pump more oil than the group’s future production quotas may allow once the conflict ends and normal trade through the strait of Hormuz resumes.

But a new pipeline means the UAE could pursue its plan to ramp up oil exports even if the conflict continues for longer than expected, or an eventual peace plan stops short of allowing a free flow of tankers through the waterway to return to pre-crisis levels. The UAE’s departure has laid bare the long-running tensions between Abu Dhabi and Riyadh, with the Saudis normally favouring strict production quotas to keep oil prices high enough to support their economic agenda.

The exact capacity of the new pipeline has not been disclosed but doubling its existing capacity to 3.6m barrels a day would bring the UAE’s pipeline exports closer to that of Saudi Arabia, which can transport roughly 7m barrels a day from its eastern oilfields to the Red Sea port of Yanbu, of which 5m barrels are exported.