The construction of the new United Arab Emirates (UAE) pipeline, designed to divert crude oil transit outside the Strait of Hormuz, is progressing well and is already close to 50% completion, with the aim of having the infrastructure operational by 2027, according to the Emirati Minister of Energy and Technology and CEO of the oil company Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc), Sultan Al Jaber.
In an address to the American think tank Atlantic Council, Al Jaber stressed that the closure of the Hormuz passage would represent the largest supply disruption recorded to date, and warned that this is not solely an issue related to oil, but a much broader challenge, encompassing fertilizers, critical minerals, plastics, consumer goods, and numerous commodities.
Last week, Adnoc announced its plan to double its crude oil export capacity starting next year without being exposed to the tensions of the Strait of Hormuz. To this end, it is building a pipeline that will cross Emirati territory from West to East to the city of Fujairah, on the coast of the Gulf of Oman, outside the Strait of Hormuz.
"The project is already almost 50% complete, and we are accelerating its delivery for 2027," commented the CEO of Adnoc, who recalled that, at present, a large part of global energy "still passes through very few choke points," a situation that led the UAE to invest in new infrastructure to bypass the Strait of Hormuz.
In any case, the Emirati official warned that, even if the current conflict in the Middle East "ended tomorrow," it would take at least four months to recover 80% of the pre-crisis flows, while full normalization would not be achieved until the first or even the second quarter of 2027.
The UAE ceased to be part of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the OPEC+ alliance on May 1st, citing as the main reason its desire to promote commercial policies aligned with "long-term market fundamentals."
The country joined the organization in 1967 through the emirate of Abu Dhabi and maintained its OPEC membership after the creation of the United Arab Emirates in 1971.
OPEC was born in 1960 with five founding members Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait and Venezuela and, until the departure of the UAE, it had 12 member countries. In addition, states such as Russia, Mexico or Kazakhstan participate within the framework of OPEC+, a mechanism with which coordination was strengthened between some of the world's largest crude oil producers.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries establishes production quotas of barrels of oil in order to regulate the supply in the market and condition the evolution of international crude oil prices, in addition to acting as a space for coordination and dialogue between producing countries.