Is Fujairah oil pipeline a panacea?

Azerbaijan, Baku, June 22 / Trend / Azer Ahmedbeyli, Trend Analytical Centre expert The Fujairah pipeline built around the Persian Gulf taking UAE oil to the Indian Ocean was launched earlier. By itself, this fact would have attracted attention only as an extension of pipeline infrastructure and the emergence of a new route to diversify supply of hydrocarbons from the Gulf region, and no more. Pipeline capacity is quite modest by the standards of Middle Eastern volumes of production and export, the length - the same way. That is, it could have been considered a commonplace project not making radical changes in the overall picture of trade and transportation of oil in the Middle East. This pipeline whose construction project was implemented by the Chinese company China Petroleum Engineering & Construction for a short time, has a length of 360 kilometers, capacity - 1.5 million barrels per day in total exports of the UAE at 2.5 million barrels, according to BP data for 2011. The project cost was approximately $ 2.7 billion. All of this would be so, if we were talking about the peace-time and the absence of military-political confrontation in the region between the West and Iran. Once a possible outbreak of hostilities, and as a consequence, the implementation of the threat to block the Strait of Hormuz , through which nearly forty percent of the world's oil is exported is mentioned, the significance of this oil pipeline takes assumes a different meaning, and it turns into an important strategic site, which will allow to partially reduce the pressure in the "corked bottle of Hormuz," until it is opened again. And yet, it would be naive to pin great hopes on it, with the view that Fujairah is an excellent military target. The war, if it starts, will be cynical and no rules on both sides will be followed. Iran, driven into a corner, will have a dozen reasons to destroy or damage the pipeline. The importance of oil in the other: this is a pioneer oil pipeline. It is likely to be followed by construction of a second, third, etc. Arab countries of the Gulf need to diversify routes of supply of hydrocarbons in any case, regardless of whether someone threatens today or tomorrow to block two-kilometer "throat" of the Strait of Hormuz or not. They thus will be able to eliminate vulnerability in their energy security. And not just in their own.