Officials and energy industry leaders in the region believe that building new oil and gas pipelines may be the only option to minimize the risk of supply disruption through the Strait of Hormuz. However, these are expensive, politically complex projects and may take many years to complete.
The current reality further highlights the role of Saudi Arabia’s East-West oil pipeline. Built in the 1980s after the fear of a “tanker war” in the Iran-Iraq war, this approximately 1,200km long pipeline currently transports up to 7 million barrels of oil…