As Gulf States Plan Bypass Pipelines, US Military Is Quietly Helping Ships Cross Hormuz
5th June 2026
Three months ago, just as the Iran war was getting started, we said it was surprising that UAE’s oil export terminal of Fujairah – already the Middle East’s largest bunkering terminal for tankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz and major loading point for Murban crude – was not a far bigger in terms of capacity and throughput as it bypasses the Straits completely, and predicted a “major infrastructure push here after the war.”
That, coupled with the fact that Saudi East-West pipeline was running at peak capacity of roughly 7mmb/d (including non-oil products), and one could see – we said – the urgency gripping the Gulf in finding alternatives to the Strait of Hormuz which has emerged as Iran’s biggest source of leverage in the war.
Fast forward to today when we get the latest confirmation that plans for Hormuz alternatives are indeed front and center, after the FT reported that gulf countries that export oil via the Strait of Hormuz are in talks about planning pipelines that would allow them to bypass the waterway should it remain largely closed.
Kuwait was among the countries talking to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates about potential pipelines across their countries that could connect Gulf oil production to global buyers, said Sheikh Khaled Ahmad Al-Sabah, managing director of international marketing at Kuwait Petroleum Corp.