Habshan-Fujairah pipeline

The pipeline was built between 2008 and 2012 at a cost of $3.29 billion by ADNOC, the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company. Its sole strategic purpose was to give UAE crude an export route that sidestepped the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly 20% of global oil passes. At 407 kilometres, it runs from Habshan in the Abu Dhabi interior to the Fujairah terminal on the Gulf of Oman coast.

A strike on Fujairah port overnight closed the Gulf's last functioning energy exit route. The Habshan-Fujairah pipeline terminates at Fujairah, carrying 750,000 Barrels Per Day overland from Abu Dhabi to the UAE's eastern coast; the attack shut both the sea lane and the overland bypass simultaneously. A second strike damaged a vessel 7 nautical miles off Fujairah days later, confirming the port's sustained exposure.

With Fujairah under attack and OOMCO's Duqm facility damaged in a separate strike, every Gulf export alternative to Hormuz was compromised within days. Brent Crude broke $100 per barrel for the first time since the war began, a direct consequence of the bypass routes closing. The pipeline illustrates a structural vulnerability: Hormuz alternatives route through coastal terminals that are themselves within Iranian strike range.