Middle Eastern pipelines-A new game of Monopoly

Middle Eastern pipelines would make for an exciting 21st-century updated game of Monopoly or Risk. Pipelines are the currency of the region’s latest efforts to rethink energy security and reduce Gulf state and Iraqi dependence on the embattled Strait of Hormuz. Increasing the capacity of existing pipelines and building new ones is no panacea for the immediate crisis, from which Iran will likely emerge as a, if not the key, player in the waterway through which 20 per cent of the world’s energy trade flows. Future pipelines are a mid-term goal; they have little impact on current efforts to ensure freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz. Moreover, the prospect of diverting up to 60 percent of the flow of oil and gas away from the Strait of Hormuz could stiffen Iran's position in current negotiations, given that future alternative infrastructure would reduce rather than eliminate its leverage. Add to that the fact that pipelines and other alternative infrastructure do not eradicate risk; they diversify it for some Gulf energy exporters.