Posted on 07/16/2012 5:49:45 AM PDT by thackney
The United Arab Emirates on Sunday inaugurated a much-anticipated overland oil pipeline that bypasses the Strait of Hormuz, giving the OPEC member insurance against Iranian threats to block the strategic waterway.
The 380-kilometer (236-mile) Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline snakes across western desert dunes and over the craggy Hajar mountains to the city of Fujairah on the UAEs Indian Ocean coast, south of the strait.
Until now, all Emirati exports were loaded in the Gulf and then sailed out through Hormuz. Once it is running at full capacity, the pipeline could allow the country, OPECs third biggest exporter, to ship as much as two-thirds of its peak production through the eastern port city.
(Excerpt) Read more at fuelfix.com ...
History shows us that one of the first acts taken by terrorists is to blow up pipelines and other transportation facilities.
Long pipelines, railroad tracks and highways are especially easy targets and hard to defend.
If you think you can keep the location of a major pipeline secret, you are mistaken. You may have a thousand or more of people working on it and it can be easily seen even after buried.
Trying for secrecy is only a waste of time and offers delusions of security that never exist. Better to deal with the threat straight on than “bury your head in the sand”.
Oil Pipeline Bypasses the Strait of Hormuz by Daniel Pipes, June 21, 2012For a map of most of the Middle East pipelines... note that the Saudis have two petroleum pipelines and a methane pipeline running across to the Red Sea, and can move 6.5 million bbl a day.
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