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BOTTOM LINE

Newoi pipe ine opens

BARRISTER HARUN UR RASHID
THE Strait of Hormuz is a narrow, strategically important strait between the Gulf of Oman and the Persian/Arabian Gulf. On the north coast is Iran and on the south coast are the United Arab Emirates and Musandam, an enclave of Oman.
It is the only sea passage to the open ocean for petroleum-exporting countries such as Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. A fifth of the world's oil flows through the Strait. The geopolitical importance of the Hormuz Strait is such that Cyrus Vance, former US secretary of state, called it "the jugular vein of the West."
US Navy Admiral Jonathan Greenert, who was made the chief of naval operations last September, said back in January: "If you ask me what keeps me awake at night, it's the Strait of Hormuz and the business going on in the Arabian Gulf."
The US and Iran have been "flexing their muscles" over the Iranian threat of closure of the Hormuz Strait since last week of December and the brinkmanship on both sides may lead to miscalculations, with terrible consequences on a global scale, according to oil and foreign policy experts.
Ali Fadavi, naval commander in Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard Corps, said Tehran had the ability to "not allow even a single drop of oil to pass" the Strait. It is reported that the chairman of Iran's Joint Chiefs of Staff Firouzabadi said that the decision over whether Tehran would block the Strait of Hormuz rested in the hands of the Commander-in-Chief, Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The US and UK said that their joint naval presence in the Gulf, something the oilexporting countries appreciate, is key to keeping the Strait of Hormuz open for international trade. They said that it was in everyone's interests that the arteries of global trade are kept free, open and running. Disruption in the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz would threaten regional and global economic growth.
To counter the possibility of blockage of Strait of Hormuz, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have quietly opened new pipelines bypassing the Strait of Hormuz. The projects come as oil prices have risen back above $100 a barrel, in part due to falling Iranian oil exports.
The crude oil pipeline from Habshan in Abu Dhabi to the coast of Fujairah took five years and 225,000 tonnes of steel pipes to build. The pipeline runs across sabkha, the treacherous mix of salt, sand and gypsum in the west, and under the dunes of the central desert. In perhaps the most remarkable section of the project, pipes were laid across the Hajar mountains into Fujairah. About 5,000 workers were involved in the construction of the pipeline, which cost an estimated $3.3 billion and has a capacity of 1.8 million barrels a day.
The new links will more than double the total pipeline capacity bypassing the strait to 6.5 million barrels per day, or about 40% of oil that transits Hormuz. The UAE, on July 15, loaded the first tanker from its new 370-kilometre pipe linking the oilfields near Abu Dhabi with the port of Fujairah in the Indian Ocean. The pipeline, which had been delayed several years, has a capacity about 65% of the country’s exports. "This is a very strategic project," said Mohammed al-Hamli, UAE oil minister, in a ceremony in Fujairah.
At the same time, Saudi Arabia has quietly converted a natural gas pipeline to allow it to carry crude oil. The 1,200-kilometre long pipeline, which could transport up to 25% of the country's oil exports, runs from the oilfields of the Eastern province, on the Gulf coast, to a terminal near Yanbu in the Red Sea, bypassing Gulf shipping lanes and giving Riyadh scope to export more of its crude from Red Sea terminals should Iran try to block the Strait of Hormuz, industry sources say.
The 48-inch pipeline was built during the Iran-Iraq war in the early 1980s, when both sides were attacking oil tankers in the Gulf, to transport oil as part of the so-called East-West Petroline system of pipelines. But the line was later converted to carry natural gas. Now Riyadh has quietly switched it back to oil, according to officials. "We want to be ready," said a Saudi oil official. "The pipeline gives us flexibility." Saudi Arabia has three other oil and gas pipelines across its territory bypassing the Strait of Hormuz, and a 56-inch oil pipeline built three decades ago as part of the Petroline system.
The quiet opening of the pipelines comes amid heightened diplomatic tension over Tehran's nuclear programme. Iran's oil production has reportedly fallen to its lowest in more than 20 years due to the impact of US and European sanctions. Iran insists on its right to a peaceful nuclear programme for its energy and denies any nuclear weapon agenda.
Abu Dhabi and Riyadh say the pipelines are not a direct response to Tehran's threats. But oil traders and scholars say they are a counterweight.
"Multiple pipelines would partly negate the Iranian threat to block [the Strait of) Hormuz," said Rafael Kandiyoti, senior research fellow at Imperial College London and author of Pipelines: Oil Flows and Crude Politics. "Showing increasing pipeline capacity suits the purposes of Saudi Arabia."
The pipeline allows both UAE and Saudi Arabia to bypass the Hormuz Strait when exporting their oil. In the circumstances, the Strait has lost its importance to two major oil exporting countries.
Meanwhile, policy makers and traders doubt that Iran will ever carry out its threat to close the Strait of Hormuz for two reasons: first, it is the gateway for all its own oil exports and also for its food imports; second, the Strait is so strategic that a blockade would likely trigger a military response from the US and potentially other countries.
The writer is a former Bangladesh Ambassador to the UN, Geneva.