Iran Blocks Hormuz; UAE Accelerates Plan for Alternative Oil Pipeline

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is speeding up the construction of a new oil pipeline to reduce reliance on the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran is currently blocking. ADNOC chief executive Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber said nearly half of the construction of the second pipeline has been completed. ‘At the moment, too much of the world’s energy is still flowing through too few chokepoints,’ Al Jaber said in an interview with the Atlantic Council on Wednesday 21 May 2026, as reported by CNBC. The project is targeted to begin operating in 2027. The UAE accelerated the project after Iran blocked the Strait of Hormuz since early March. The closure has disrupted oil and gas exports from Gulf countries. However, the capacity is considered insufficient to cope with a prolonged Hormuz closure. According to Al Jaber, the impact of the Hormuz blockade has been very large on the global energy market. ‘The Hormuz blockade has triggered the most severe energy-supply disruptions in history,’ he said. He cited more than 1 billion barrels of oil having been lost due to the strait’s closure. ADNOC estimates that global energy supply recovery will not be rapid even if the war ends soon. ‘It will take at least four months to lift oil flows to 80 percent of normal levels, even if the conflict ends immediately,’ Al Jaber said. He expects global oil supplies to return to full normality only in the first or second quarter of 2027.