The Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline (ADCOP) project may see its first flows of oil from Abu Dhabi to Fujairah in December, according to a Reuters report.
“Oil could flow through the pipeline from end-December initially at 1 million bpd and gradually increase to 2 million bpd,” one of four unnamed industry sources cited by Reuters told the newswire.
The 480km pipeline can accommodate almost all the oil produced by Abu Dhabi, and could remove the need for tankers to traverse the Strait of Hormuz, deemed less secure as speculation mounts over military action against Iran to derail its alleged nuclear weapons program. Initially the pipeline will take oil from the Habshan blocks operated by ADCO.
The Strait sees around a third of all sea-borne oil and gas tanker traffic in the world, and the ADCOP project will significantly ease what has become an export bottleneck after Abu Dhabi’s field development programs have raised the Emirate’s production levels and Qatar’s LNG exports have increased in the last few years.
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