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Comment by BashiBazouk | Hacker News Reader

Why would they not just build a pipeline from Kuwait to Oman or even UAE to the other side of Oman? If the Keystone pipeline is profitable, so would this I would think. Seems like a temporary problem or a fine line for Iran to charge fees low enough the effort would not be worth it...

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1. They already did, Fujairah is a major oil port.

2. Fujairah is within drone and missile range of a lot of remaining Iranian strike capability.

3. Fujairah is not really equipped with a large amount of high precision, reliable, expensive, slow to procure and replace air defense systems.

4. Fujairah has already been struck repeatedly since this conflict kicked off.

5. The oil pipeline capacity from the 'west' side of the UAE to Fujairah is nowhere near enough to meet demand, even if the port and oil terminal were considered totally safe by ship owners and cargo owners, which it isn't.

They already did:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habshan%E2%80%93Fujairah_oil_p...

But it obviously wasn't designed to carry all the oil going through the Strait.

It should be pointed out that facilities connected to this pipeline were targeted during the conflict.

Imagine thinking this was a good idea when you cut your ribbon after all that money and effort and then a ~$500 drone flies over and with one explosion has it leaking.

Do you think people are dumb? Obviously beneficial and easy actions that no one has taken rarely exist in the real world. You're basically suggesting the people actually there who have a better view than you are profoundly stupid.

Oil pipelines are underground. The small proportions of above-ground sections were indeed targeted in this recent conflict but in war-prone areas so is the rest of your oil infrastructure including ships at sea and the ground based facilities can be fortified and defended.

Is it vulnerable to the same sort of asymmetric attack, yes or no?

Can the system run if those above ground areas are destroyed? Of course hypothetically they can be defended. Just like hypothetically a few drones should not be able to shut the world's most powerful navy out of the strait.

In reality we know the real answer lies in an admission of your answer. The best defense is electing governments which will not wantonly engage in armed conflicts.

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