The United Arab Emirates is moving faster to build around the Strait of Hormuz crisis. Abu Dhabi has ordered ADNOC to accelerate a West-East crude oil pipeline expansion that would double the UAE’s export capacity through Fujairah by 2027, according to Reuters and The National.
The decision is a concrete sign that the Gulf’s energy powers are no longer treating the Hormuz disruption as a short-term shipping problem. They are investing in permanent export routes that reduce exposure to the chokepoint where Iran’s pressure campaign has disrupted tankers, lifted energy prices, and forced governments to rethink supply security.
What the UAE is accelerating
Reuters reported that Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed directed ADNOC to fast-track construction of the new West-East Pipeline project during an executive committee meeting. The pipeline is under construction and expected to become operational in 2027.
The route is designed to move crude from Abu Dhabi’s onshore production areas toward Fujairah, a major oil hub on the Gulf of Oman. That matters because Fujairah sits outside the Strait of Hormuz, giving the UAE a way to export more crude without sending every barrel through the narrow waterway between Iran and Oman.
The UAE already uses the Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline, also known as the Habshan-Fujairah pipeline, to move oil east. Reports put its current capacity at roughly 1.5 million to 1.8 million barrels per day. The expansion is intended to double export capacity through Fujairah, making the bypass route far more central to the UAE’s long-term energy strategy.
Why Fujairah matters now
The Strait of Hormuz is one of the world’s most important energy chokepoints. Before the current crisis, about one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas moved through the waterway. Reuters reported that Iran’s effective closure of the strait since the U.S.-Israel attack on Iran on February 28 has choked off energy flows, pushed prices higher, and intensified fears of a broader economic shock.
Fujairah gives the UAE a partial escape hatch. The port’s location on the Gulf of Oman allows tankers to load outside the strait, avoiding the most dangerous transit zone. That advantage has grown as shipping lanes have become more volatile and as Gulf producers look for ways to reassure buyers that exports can keep moving.
The National described the Habshan-Fujairah line as one of the UAE’s most important strategic energy projects, built to reinforce the country’s role as a reliable global supplier while strengthening Fujairah as an international oil hub. The planned expansion also supports ADNOC’s broader push to raise production capacity to 5 million barrels per day by 2027.
A bigger Gulf energy shift
The UAE and Saudi Arabia are currently the only Gulf producers with major crude export pipelines that can route oil outside the Strait of Hormuz. Kuwait, Iraq, Qatar, and Bahrain remain far more dependent on the waterway for shipments.
Saudi Arabia has leaned on its own East-West pipeline during the crisis, with Saudi Aramco describing the route to the Red Sea as a critical lifeline. The UAE’s accelerated Fujairah project points in the same direction: Gulf producers are trying to harden their export systems against a crisis that has made the old Hormuz-first model look dangerously fragile.
The timing is also notable. Reuters reported that the announcement comes about two weeks after the UAE exited OPEC, freeing it from oil output quotas. That gives Abu Dhabi more flexibility as it expands production and export infrastructure, though the pipeline itself will not solve the immediate shipping crisis because it is not expected to operate until 2027.
The short-term risk has not gone away
The pipeline push does not remove today’s danger. Reuters reported that Fujairah has already become more strategically important during the crisis, but the port has also faced attacks that the UAE has blamed on Iran. That means the bypass route is valuable, but not invulnerable.
For now, the announcement shows where the crisis is heading. Diplomacy may still decide when the Strait of Hormuz fully reopens, but the UAE is betting that future energy security will require more steel in the ground, more routes to open water, and less dependence on a single contested chokepoint.
Sources: Reuters; The National.