Strait of Hormuz Disruptions Expose Gulf Energy Vulnerabilities
Specialists note that the current upheaval is notable not just due to the volume of crude oil at risk, but also because it has interrupted a wider array of crucial commodities, including liquefied natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, petrochemicals, fertilizers, and helium. This situation emphasizes the Gulf’s pivotal role in the global energy and industrial supply chains.
Li-Chen Sim, an associate fellow at the US Middle East Institute, described the disruption as unprecedented in both magnitude and scope, noting that no fully operational substitute exists to replace the affected flows.
“There is no operating workaround that can replace these flows because of the scale involved,” Sim said, highlighting that even after rerouting pipelines in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, roughly 17% of global oil flows continue to be impacted.
Adi Imsirovic, a lecturer in Energy Systems at the University of Oxford, mentioned that emergency oil reserves could mitigate some of the immediate shock but cautioned that a long-term conflict would present far greater challenges.
“The problem is a prolonged conflict, more than a few weeks,” he explained, adding that pipelines in Saudi Arabia and the UAE that bypass the strait can transport up to 7 million barrels per day, whereas Iraq, Kuwait, and Bahrain lack the necessary infrastructure to compensate for the disruption.
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