Beyond Hormuz: Gulf is spending billions to find new routes to global markets

For decades, the Strait of Hormuz has been the world's most critical oil gateway, with millions of barrels of crude passing through it every day. But repeated disruptions to oil supplies across the globe have exposed just how vulnerable that dependence is, prompting Gulf nations to resort to an ambitious network of pipelines designed to move oil without relying on the narrow waterway. From UAE to Iraq, governments and state-owned energy companies are accelerating projects worth billions of dollars to create alternative export routes linking oilfields to ports on the Gulf of Oman, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. According to government officials, oil companies and analysts, at least seven major pipeline projects are either under construction, being planned or under discussion.Before the war, around 15 million barrels of Persian Gulf oil passed through the Strait of Hormuz each day.