gulfnews : UAE keeps its options open

A new giant oil pipeline that will enable the UAE to bypass the strategic Strait of Hormuz waterway by exporting crude via Fujairah will be completed "soon," the country's oil minister said yesterday.

Speaking on the sidelines of the World Petroleum Congress in Qatar's capital, Mohammad Bin Dha'en Al Hameli, UAE Minister of Energy, didn't say when the pipeline would be completed.

The $3.29 billion, (Dh12.07 billion) 400-kilometre pipeline will enable Abu Dhabi to export as much as 70 per cent of its crude from Fujairah on the Arabian Sea, where tankers will be able to pick up the oil instead of sailing an extra day into the Arabian Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz.

* username: rupertbu