Gulf states accelerate oil export alternatives as Hormuz disruption deepens
Oil-exporting states around the Gulf are moving faster to reduce their dependence on the Strait of Hormuz as renewed attacks on tankers and the wider US-Iran war disrupt one of the world's most important energy corridors. The latest reporting says the strait is closed again, commercial vessels have been struck while transiting the waterway, and governments are now planning more pipelines and even a new port to keep crude moving. The developments underline how quickly the conflict has turned a narrow shipping lane into a central pressure point for global energy supplies.
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The immediate concern is the scale of the traffic that normally passes through the strait. Before the conflict began on 28 February, around a fifth of the world's oil and gas traffic moved through Hormuz each day, including about 20 million barrels of oil. Analysts quoted in the reporting say the market has not entered panic mode because companies and states had already begun contingency planning, but they also warn that the situation remains highly unstable.
Marine traffic watchers described the tankers hit in recent weeks as highly targeted, suggesting the attacks are not random incidents but part of a broader effort to raise the cost of shipping through the corridor. Saudi Arabia's existing East-West pipeline is one of the main examples of how Gulf producers have tried to build resilience. The line, built in the early 1980s, carries crude oil across a 1,200-kilometre system from the Abqaiq oil processing facility toward the Red Sea, allowing some exports to bypass Hormuz entirely.
The reporting says this kind of infrastructure has helped cushion global oil prices from even larger spikes during the war. It also notes that Gulf states and companies are now considering additional pipelines and a new port as they look for longer-term alternatives. The strategic significance is clear because Hormuz is not just a regional route but a global one.
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Any sustained disruption can affect shipping insurance, freight costs, refinery supply chains and the price of energy far beyond the Middle East. The fact that governments are accelerating bypass options suggests they no longer see the strait as a reliable single route for exports. That shift matters for producers, importers and markets alike, because it changes how much leverage any one state can exert over the flow of oil and gas.
Iran's role in the crisis remains central. The reporting says Tehran can use its Hormuz leverage for weeks or months, but not indefinitely, and that it has also threatened to widen pressure to the Red Sea route through its Houthi allies in Yemen. That raises the risk of a broader maritime confrontation, with more than one shipping lane potentially under threat.
It also shows how the conflict has moved beyond direct military exchanges into a contest over trade routes and energy infrastructure. The current disruption is unfolding against a backdrop of long-standing concern about the vulnerability of the Strait of Hormuz. The waterway has for years been viewed as a choke point because of the volume of oil and gas that passes through it and the limited number of practical alternatives.
The war has pushed that concern from theory into operational planning, with states now trying to future-proof exports rather than rely on a single corridor. The reporting suggests that this adaptation has already helped prevent a sharper market shock, even as the security situation worsens. There is still uncertainty over how effective the alternative routes will be if the conflict continues or expands.
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The reporting says opinion is divided on their long-term viability, and it is not yet clear how much additional capacity can be brought online quickly. What remains to be seen is whether the new pipelines and port plans can meaningfully offset further attacks, and whether pressure on the Red Sea route will materialise. For now, the key question is how long Gulf exporters can keep oil moving while the region's main shipping lanes remain under threat.
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