U.S., allies accelerate pipelines, export terminals to reduce dependence on Strait of Hormuz

The U.S. and its allies are accelerating pipelines, export terminals, and overland trade corridors to reduce global dependence on the Strait of Hormuz and weaken Iran’s ability to disrupt oil markets.

Key projects include expanded Saudi and UAE pipeline capacity, new Iraqi export routes to Turkey and Syria, and the fast-tracked India–Middle East–Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), designed to bypass Hormuz.

Washington is also seeking to diversify global oil supplies by boosting production across the Americas, aiming to ensure future Hormuz disruptions have a far smaller impact on energy markets and oil prices.

Kuwait oil industry

For decades, Iran has relied on the Strait of Hormuz as its most effective geopolitical weapon — a crucial energy chokepoint through which up to a third of the world’s oil is transported and about a fifth of its liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Tehran’s immediate blockade of the transit route at the onset of the 28 February U.S./Israeli joint military operation against Iran prompted a cessation of maritime traffic through the chokepoint, catalysing a spike in oil prices of over 70 per cent. The prospect of such a blockade continuing into the U.S.’s 3 November Mid-Term Elections was the decisive factor behind President Donald Trump’s willingness to forge a peace deal, at least in the short term.

This is because there is a direct link between the oil price, the price of gasoline, U.S. economic growth, and the success of incumbent presidents and their parties in elections, as fully analysed in my latest book on the new global oil market order.

Understandably, according to several senior energy security sources in London, Brussels, and Washington, exclusively spoken to by OilPrice.com over the past few days, moves are afoot to reshape the regional energy map to ensure that Iran’s Hormuz threat becomes increasingly ineffective in the coming years. So, what exactly is going on right now?