View: Resilience of Gulf oil infrastructure has its limits
Semafor · Amena Bakr ·
Pipelines have kept exports flowing, but depleted inventories and demand destruction add pressure to a stressed energy system.
Amena’s view
The drums of war are beating again, and the oil-exporting states are bracing “for the worst,” as the UAE’s presidential advisor Anwar Gargash recently put it. Eight months into the US-Iran war, one lesson is clear: There is no amount of operational resilience that can shield energy infrastructure from an unresolved political conflict. Renewed strikes will put more of the region’s oil supply at risk.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE have demonstrated exceptional levels of resilience, activating contingency plans, carrying out repair works in record time, and keeping customers supplied. Their bypass pipelines have proven the value of planning for the shift from the “just in time” model to the “just in case” approach.