UAE oil pipeline to avoid Hormuz delayed to 2011

The United Arab Emirates will complete a pipeline for oil exports to bypass the Strait of Hormuz around two years later than initially scheduled, the project's director said on Tuesday. But the managing director of Abu Dhabi government-owned International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC), which is carrying out the project, later said it would be ready in 2010.

The pipeline would allow the world's third-largest oil exporter to pump around 60 percent of its crude exports to a port on the Gulf of Oman, avoiding the strategic shipping chokepoint at the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran has threatened to block the route, through which about 40 percent of the world's traded oil is shipped, if it were attacked over its nuclear programme.
"There have been some delays due to market conditions," said Dieter Blauberg, the head of the IPIC pipeline project. "The market was congested and getting materials was difficult."