Abu Dhabi: The UAE’s Minister of Energy and Industry, Suhail Al Mazroui, said he didn’t expect oil supplies to be disrupted through the Straight of Hormuz, calling the waterway vital to not just the UAE but to the world and Iran as well.
The minister was making his remarks in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday morning at the Gulf Intelligence UAE Energy Forum, which was taking place just a few hours after news broke of Iran firing a volley of ballistic missiles at two US bases in Iraq.
“The Straight of Hormuz is not only important for us, it’s important for the whole world economy and it’s important to the whole supply chain and Iran understands that.
“If that supply is cut I can assure you that every country in the world will be impacted, whether you’re in the US … Canada or in Australia, everyone will be impacted. The world economy cannot sustain another $100 oil price and another huge spike,” he added.
Al Mazroui also reassured the market that the UAE and the GCC were well handled to continue delivering oil supplies even in the event of a conflict, pointing to previous examples from the region.
“Don’t forget that we had wars in the Middle East, we had war between two producing nations in Opec, and during the Iraq-Iran war the oil was flowing and we maintained [our position] as a reliable supplier; whether [it was] the UAE or the whole GCC.
“We don’t have control on wars or control on tension, but, definitely we can have control on how much we produce and how much we invest in this industry to ensure that whether there is a war, whether there is tension or not, that the world is well supplied,” Al Mazroui said.
“We will always make sure that we supply the world with whatever it requires and we are building those spare capacities especially for us within the UAE, to ensure that in the future we have that capability,” he added.
