Rubio's plan to bypass the Strait of Hormuz runs into the capacity limits of alternative pipelines

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in a Fox News interview that aired on Saturday, 1 August 2026, floated the idea of a permanent geopolitical shift in how the world's energy moves, routing it outside the Strait of Hormuz. Before the start of the US and Israeli war on Iran, about one fifth of global seaborne oil trade passed through the strait.

According to US Energy Information Administration (EIA) data, the 39 kilometre wide strait handles roughly 20 million barrels of oil a day, equal to about 20 percent of global petroleum liquids consumption. A fifth of the world's liquefied natural gas trade, primarily from Qatar, also passes through the same route.

Experts told Al Jazeera that the capacity of alternative pipelines is limited. Saudi Arabia's East to West pipeline (Petroline) has returned to pumping about 7 million barrels a day after wartime damage was repaired, according to the Saudi energy ministry, and the Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline carries up to 1.8 million barrels a day to the port of Fujairah. The combined maximum capacity of the alternative lines is about 9 million barrels a day, and the EIA estimates only around 2.6 million barrels a day of unused capacity exists on the Saudi and Emirati pipelines. Experts also warned that shifting cargoes to the Red Sea transfers the vulnerability to the Bab al-Mandeb strait.