The world needs these two Middle East pipelines now more than ever

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🗞️ Driving the news: Two critical pipelines in the Middle East, the Saudi East-West pipeline and the Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline, have become some of the most vital pieces of infrastructure globally, as tensions and blockages in the Strait of Hormuz have intensified
• These pipelines bypass the strait, allowing oil to continue flowing to world markets despite disrupted tanker routes

🔭 The context: With the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial global oil transit route, effectively blocked due to geopolitical instability, these pipelines are now lifelines for transporting a significant portion of the Middle East's crude oil
• The Saudi East-West pipeline specifically is seeing elevated usage, helping to safeguard global oil supplies during this time of uncertainty, especially for the Kingdom's export to the Red Sea via the Yanbu port

🌍 Why it matters for the planet: These pipelines provide a crucial alternative to the tankers that usually traverse the Strait of Hormuz, helping to maintain oil supply stability amid geopolitical volatility
• Without this infrastructure, global oil markets could face far more severe disruptions, potentially raising energy prices and undermining efforts to transition toward more sustainable energy sources

⏭️ What’s next: The Middle East's pipeline infrastructure will be under even greater scrutiny, with oil-producing nations ramping up capacity to mitigate disruptions
• However, continued reliance on fossil fuels and challenges in oil transport security raise concerns about the longer-term sustainability of the global energy system

💬 One quote: “These pipelines are the only things preventing an even worse crisis from unfolding.” – Joe Wallace, The Wall Street Journal

📈 One stat: Saudi Arabia is pumping as much crude oil as possible through its East-West pipeline to Yanbu, bypassing the blocked Strait of Hormuz

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