The Problem With Trying to Bypass Hormuz Using Pipelines

The East-West Pipeline in Saudi Arabia, which delivers oil to the shores of the Red Sea, has been an important workaround to the choking of tanker traffic by Iran in the Strait of Hormuz, the only exit for tankers from the Persian Gulf to the open sea. The Saudi government claims that 7 million barrels per day (mbpd) of crude oil can flow westward through the pipeline to the port of Yanbu, though the current exports are thought to be lower (perhaps 5 mbpd) than that given infrastructure restraints. But now that pipeline has been bombed and put...