Abu Dhabi is exporting oil for the first time in three decades through a pipeline that circumvents the Strait of Hormuz as Middle Eastern producers seek to nullify Iranian threats to block the shipping chokepoint.
The $3.3 billion link across the United Arab Emirates to the port of Fujairah, to be inaugurated July 15, ensures that at least some Abu Dhabi crude will reach buyers if Iran shuts the waterway. A closure of the transit point would put at risk a fifth of the world’s oil supplies.
“This is a significant step to maintain the flow of oil if there is ever an issue of security around the Gulf,” said Danny Sebright, president of the U.S.-U.A.E. Business Council in Washington and a former Defense Department and intelligence official who worked on the Gulf region. “The opening of this pipeline will spur others to give careful consideration to similar plans that may have been put on the shelf,” he said in a July 1 telephone interview.
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