A ship is illuminated by fire from a burning vessel after Iranian explosive-laden boats attacked fuel tankers in Iraqi waters
Rethinking the Middle East oil topography
The regional crisis highlights the undervalued role of fixed pipelines in the age of tanker flexibility
The latest Middle East crisis has done something that years of energy transition debates, climate agendas and market diversification could not: it has forced the world to confront just how fragile maritime oil logistics really are. With the Strait of Hormuz effectively choked by the US–Israel war with Iran, the global energy system is rediscovering the strategic value of pipelines—particularly the Saudi East–West Pipeline and the UAE’s Habshan–Fujairah route. These overland arteries, long treated as backup options, have suddenly become the lifelood of global oil security. When conflict shut the strategic waterway, Gulf producers such as Iraq and Kuwait were forced to curb production. Storage
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