Will the Iran war end Strait of Hormuz oil supremacy?
Key takeaways
- The conflict has brutally exposed the energy market's Achilles' heel.
- During the 1980 to 1988 Iran-Iraq war, both sides repeatedly targeted oil tankers in the strait, turning one of the world's most vital crude arteries into a floating battlefield.
- Saudi Arabia reacted by building the East-West Pipeline across its vast desert peninsula to the Red Sea port of Yanbu.
Why this matters: an international story with cross-border implications worth tracking.
The conflict has brutally exposed the energy market's Achilles' heel. While global powers China, India and the EU push renewables, Gulf leaders are advancing plans for new bypass pipelines to safeguard their oil empires.
https://p.dw.com/p/5Cd Nk Oil pipelines to alternative ports have given Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Iraq an export buffer Image: Essam Al-Sudani/REUTERSAdvertisement Four decades ago, the Strait of Hormuz revealed its deadly vulnerability to the global oil market. During the 1980 to 1988 Iran-Iraq war, both sides repeatedly targeted oil tankers in the strait, turning one of the world's most vital crude arteries into a floating battlefield.
Saudi Arabia reacted by building the East-West Pipeline across its vast desert peninsula to the Red Sea port of Yanbu. Years later, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) followed suit with the Habshan–Fujairah pipeline from the Abu Dhabi emirate to the Gulf of Oman.