The United Arab Emirates has completed about half of a new crude oil pipeline designed to bypass the Strait of Hormuz, with the project being accelerated toward a planned 2027 launch, according to Reuters.
Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, CEO of state-owned oil company ADNOC (Abu Dhabi National Oil Company), told a May 20 Atlantic Council event that construction of the West-East Pipeline, fast-tracked by Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed Al Nahyan to double export capacity through Fujairah, is “almost 50% complete.”
Al Jaber said global oil flows may take at least four months after the end of the Iran war to recover to 80% of pre-conflict levels and are unlikely to fully normalize before the first half of 2027.
After the late-February U.S.-Israeli strikes, Tehran largely closed the Strait of Hormuz to foreign shipping, allowing passage mainly to Iran-approved vessels, while attacking or threatening ships to enforce control over the waterway. Washington later imposed a blockade on Iranian ports.
Al Jaber said the existing Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline, which carries up to 1.8 million barrels per day, has proved crucial as the UAE seeks to maximize exports from the Gulf of Oman coast outside the Strait.
“Once you accept that a single country can hold the world’s most important waterway hostage, freedom of navigation as we know it is just finished,” he said. “If we don’t defend this principle today, we will spend the next decade defending against the consequences.”
