News

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.

The U.S. and European Union are tightening economic
sanctions against Iran, demanding that the country allow greater
scrutiny of a n... >>>