Not quite. ADCOP was carrying 50% of UAE production (1.5-1.8 million bpd) and is being ramped up significantly. OPEC had limited UAE's output to 2.9-3.5 million bpd thus far and since the conflict UAE has been targeting 5 million bpd. With this announcement the dependence on Hormuz is being lessened drastically.
> 2) They can gain by increasing their production, IF they can get that out through Hozmuz. And IF (after Hormuz is opened) other OPEC+ countries DO NOT decide to do the same and the price of oil collapses.
As pointed out above Hormuz is being bypassed with ADCOP's capacity being ramped up. I am willing to bet, this announcement is what will get Iran to seriously consider removing its blockade of Strait of Hormuz since its main leverage will be gone. A good example is Russia's loss of leverage over Europe when most of the EU countries cut their dependencies on Russian Oil/Gas since the start of the Ukraine war.
> 3) US did not meaningfully came to their help. The high-end air defense systems were reserved/moved to Isreal. They mostly defended themselves, with the stuff they bought over the years from the US. A slightly cynical take would be 'classic protection racket'.
Most of UAE's equipment is from the US. See US approves $7 billion more in weapons for UAE - https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/us-approves-7-bill... and U.S. Considers Financial Support for Oil-Rich U.A.E - https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/21/business/economy/us-uae-f... Only recently have they started diversifying with a major defence deal with South Korea.
> 4) The national interests of other OPEC members are best served by being united against greater forces from outside region, not by fracturing and bickering among themselves. This is classical divide and conquer.
Nope; OPEC/OPEC+ exists only to serve the interests of Saudi Arabia and Russia. The others went along since money was rolling in anyway. But now the geopolitical situation has changed and every member has to look after its own national interests.
However, for your edification;
The wikipedia page for ADCOP i had given above, lists a whole set of links from where you can get more info. and data. One main source is the website of ADNOC (https://www.adnoc.ae/) who owns/operates ADCOP. The UAE has been calling in loans (eg. $3.5billion from Pakistan), asking the US for money (links given above) etc. all towards having enough to ramp up production to 5 million bpd by 2027. The defence cooperation between the UAE and US is longstanding, with the recent war merely ramping it up. The OPEC/OPEC+ is just a cartel which should have been broken up long ago.
The UAE’s Energy Playbook Is Paying Off Amid Global Turmoil - https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/The-UAEs-Energy-Playbo...
UAE To Hit Its Oil Capacity Increase Sooner Than Expected - https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/UAE-To-Hi...
Will the Iran war end Strait of Hormuz oil supremacy? - https://www.dw.com/en/iran-war-strait-of-hormuz-oil-supply-r...
In bid to bypass Hormuz chokepoint, Gulf countries scramble to ramp up infra - https://archive.ph/Xh1aq#selection-669.0-669.76
The increase in production capacity is irrelevant if you don't have a way to export the said production.
My question was specifically about the increase in the pipeline's capacity. Because your statement "As pointed out above Hormuz is being bypassed with ADCOP's capacity being ramped up." does not make sense otherwise.
Chatgpt tell me this this: Short term: increase ADCOP from ~1.5 → ~1.8–2.0 mb/d (confirmed and achievable) Medium term: expand storage and export infrastructure at Fujairah Long term: build additional pipelines/corridors alongside ADCOP
Short term is too small. Medium term does not help with the throughput, just better buffering. And the long term is, well, long term (= many, many years).
Why could something that might happen many years in the future force the Iran to open Hormuz now?
The thing is, 5-10 years from now the importance of oil will be greatly diminished, as this oil shock will result in much greater push for decarbonisation than all climate summits combined (and the technology -- mostly solar and long distance DC lines - is essentially ready, at a reasonable cost). The gulf states see this, so I am not 100% sure all those pushes for extra pipelines will come to fruition, once the Iran war cools down.
You simply are not understanding my comments nor reading the provided informative links.
There are three things to consider viz. 1) Production Capacity i.e. new wells/sources 2) Pipeline Capacity i.e. pipeline bandwidth and no. of pipelines 3) Storage Capacity i.e both at terminal/port and distributed worldwide.
The Iran/Strait of Hormuz problem was foreseen long ago and the UAE specifically has been working on all three of the above. ADCOP construction was started March 2008, completed March 2011 and operational in June 2012. That gives you an idea of how fast things moved.
The last link about infra above lists some possible ways to increase pipeline capacity which in the case of UAE is actually Short/Medium term (easily within 5 years) viz;
... as well as enhancements or parallel lines to the UAE’s ADCOP pipeline to Fujairah,” said Kpler oil analyst Grabenwöger ... In terms of timing, the UAE probably has the most flexibility to move relatively quickly on incremental projects ...
There is also talk of extending ADCOP to the nearby Omani port of Duqm.
Conlusion:
“Five years from now, the Persian Gulf will have far better bypass options than it does today. No matter what the US and Iran agree over the future of Hormuz, the strait’s status will change. But the waterway will never be as critical to the global economy as it was when the fighting started six weeks ago,” Blas wrote.
> The thing is, 5-10 years from now the importance of oil will be greatly diminished
This line tells me you have no idea of the Petroleum industry and its importance to the modern world. Our dependence on Oil will not go away in the next 50 years nor even 100 years. As an example, look up "Naptha shortage" to understand how vital the byproducts of crude oil refining/distillation are to our modern industries. There are over 6000 petrochemicals ! (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrochemical) Renewables only help with alternative energy sources, and given the way we have built our modern industries around petroleum they cannot meet all our needs. They can bring down our reliance on Oil but it is very longterm.
Yes, petrochemicals have many, many applications. But those are not in millions barrels per day, that volume is driven primarily by transportation, that can (and is, currently) being replaced by electric.
I did not say "five year from now, there will be far better bypass options"; that is the expert being quoted in the last linked article above. If you had read that you would know he was talking about the situation as a whole i.e. involving Saudi Arabia, Iraq, UAE and other gulf countries all of whom are looking at ways to bypass Hormuz once and for all. Of these Saudi Arabia and UAE are the most ahead now and that is why UAE left OPEC to chart its own course since the others are lagging behind. Five years is definitely not long term but very aggressive for all gulf countries to setup infrastructure to bypass Hormuz. UAE is ahead of the game (with ADCOP since 2012) and it can easily setup its parallel lines in the next couple of years.
Again, i recommend you actually do some research on renewables vs. petroleum needs. Most transportation which can use electric is small-scale (eg. cars) but aviation/shipping etc. need Oil for the foreseeable future. What is being done with renewables is to control pollution/greenhouse-effects (essential) and lower dependence on Oil (financial/geopolitical reasons). I have already pointed out the need for Petrochemicals. If you do some research on the share of renewable energy sources in some of the world's biggest economies (specifically China and India) you will see that it is still very small considering their current/future needs. Renewables have a long way to go before they can actually make a dent in the global Oil needs.
We are still talking past each other.
Your main point is long-term plans of UAE to increase its production and to build up its ability to bypass Hormuz.
My main point is that in the short-term (say before 2030), UAE has no way to significantly increase its capability to bypass Hormuz, so to make effective use of the increase of its production, it is still dependent on Hormuz.
To quote from few posts above:
Me: 1) The pipeline to Fujairah has capacity of 1.5m barrels per day, i.e. less than half of UAE's current oil production. They still need Hormuz badly.
You: Not quite. ADCOP was carrying 50% of UAE production (1.5-1.8 million bpd) and is being ramped up significantly.
When pressed about 'being ramped up significantly', you pointed to sources about the production being ramped up significantly and build-up of port and storage facilities at Fujeira, and about plans to build a parallel pipeline in the future. That is not 'pipeline capacity being ramped up significantly', that is 'there are plans to increase the pipeline capacity'.
Perhaps misunderstanding.
Anyway, I do not really understand your pumping-up UAE future. The war has severely disturbed their non-oil income and continued regional instability would not bode well for their future (rich people do not like unsafe places).
Their recall of Pakistan's line of credit, intention to leave OPEC and their super-hostile stance to Iran do not make them friends in the region. And relying on USA/Israel for security/help is only for fools.
We are not talking past each other; You are simply trying to play "gotcha" games which i had to refute. I should also note that you have provided no sources of any kind.
I have already pointed out that UAE's output before the war was in the region of 2.9-3.5 bpd (this is variable OPEC cap) with ADCOP carrying 1.5-1.8 bpd. A little math will tell you that ADCOP was carrying between 43% and 62% of the cap and so i had mentioned a approximate mean of 50%. I have seen reports which mentioned that sometimes it fluctuated between 32% and 66% (now even more higher) based on OPEC caps/Hormuz situation.
I have also pointed out that ADCOP was constructed within 5 years and UAE has been working on Hormuz bypass options for well over a decade. Parallel pipelines would clearly not take as much time and we should easily see it by 2027/2028 since everything is being accelerated.
UAE is being a responsible "world citizen" when it comes to the all essential Oil economy and hence i do not appreciate FUD being spewed when actual facts are easily available.
Your last para are your fanciful opinions and have zero validity. The Iran conflict was simply a matter of "when" which just came to fruition now. As pointed out earlier, OPEC countries themselves were working on Hormuz bypass options for more than a decade. Iran has no friends in the Gulf region and hence UAE is fine; and whether you like it or not US/Israel are the only guarantors of security in the Gulf.