Al Arabiya: The threat of open-ended Iranian control over the Strait of Hormuz is pushing Gulf countries to revisit plans for pipelines to bypass the choke point to continue exporting oil and gas, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.
Officials and industry executives say new pipelines, and even though such projects would be expensive and politically complex, may be the only way to guarantee the continuity of energy away from any potential Iranian control over the Strait.
The current conflict has underscored the strategic value of Saudi Arabiaās 1,200 km East-West pipeline, the Financial Times said. Built in the 1980s, it is now a key lifeline, delivering 7 million barrels of oil a day to the Red Sea port of Yanbu, bypassing Hormuz entirely.
Saudi Arabia is now considering how it can export more of its 10.2mn barrels of daily production by pipeline, including examining whether it should expand the capacity of the East-West pipeline further or build new routes, the report said.
The report said one option under consideration is reviving US-led plans for an ambitious corridor linking India to Europe via the Gulf, known as the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC).
