A new oil pipeline that bypasses the Strait of Hormuz started its exports Sunday, and the first cargo is heading to a refinery in Pakistan, officials and industry sources said.
A new oil pipeline that bypasses the Strait of Hormuz started its exports Sunday, and the first cargo is heading to a refinery in Pakistan , officials and industry sources said.

"The official opening was today after the tests were completed, and the first cargo is going to Pakistan ," the official, who asked not to be named, told Dow Jones Newswires.

News that the route is getting close to operating will provide some relief to oil markets rattled by Iranian threats to block the Strait, through which one-fifth of the world's oil is currently shipped.

The pipeline, which can transport 1.5 million barrels a day of crude, is expected to have a regular flow of oil by August, Ali Rashid Al Jarwan, chief executive of Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Co., or Adma-Opco, said earlier this month.

The 400-kilometer link, which costs around $4 billion, will enable Abu Dhabi, the largest United Arab Emirates sheikdom, to export as much as 70% of its crude from Fujairah, located outside the Persian Gulf on the Gulf of Oman, where tankers will be able to pick up the oil instead of sailing into the Persian Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway watched over by Iran.

It is known as Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline, or Adcop, and is being built for the Abu Dhabi government investment firm International Petroleum Investment Co., or IPIC.

Iran has in recent months ratcheted up threats to close the Strait of Hormuz if the European Union goes through with an embargo on Iranian oil, the latest step taken to pressure Tehran into giving up a nuclear program that the West suspects is aimed at securing atomic weapons.

The Strait is one of the world's busiest tanker routes through which Persian Gulf oil producers ship their crude exports.

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