UAE Fast-Tracks Pipeline to Bypass Iran-Blockaded Strait of Hormuz

The United Arab Emirates is fast-tracking the West-East Pipeline to double its oil export capacity through the port of Fujairah by 2027, a strategic response to Iran's effective blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan directed the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) to accelerate the project, which will transport crude from inland Habshan fields to the Gulf of Oman coast, entirely circumventing the contested waterway.

The pipeline is now nearly 50 percent complete, according to ADNOC CEO Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, who warned that full oil flows may not return to pre-conflict levels until early 2027. The Strait of Hormuz has been effectively shuttered since early March, when Iran closed the chokepoint in retaliation for U.S.-Israeli military strikes launched on February 28. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has expanded its claimed maritime zone and launched drone and missile attacks on UAE energy infrastructure, including an ADNOC tanker, a gas-processing facility at Habshan, and Fujairah's oil zone. The UAE has sustained damage from over 3,000 missiles and drones during the conflict.

The UAE withdrew from OPEC on May 1 to free itself from production quotas, aiming to reach five million barrels per day in capacity — a goal advanced three years. OPEC production has fallen nearly 34 percent, while UAE output has dropped over 40 percent. The UAE also secured an agreement with India to store up to 30 million barrels of crude in India's strategic petroleum reserves. Al Jaber noted that too much of the world's energy still moves through too few choke points, and warned that accepting a single country holding the most important waterway hostage would end freedom of navigation as the world knows it.