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The United Arab Emirates has inaugurated the pipeline running from Abu Dhabi's largest oil fields to Fujairah, allowing crude oil to bypass the Iran-threatened Strait of Hormuz [pictured].

The new 1.8 million-barrel-per day pipeline was inaugurated on Sunday by Energy Minister Mohammed bin Dhaen Al Hamili.

"500,000 barrels of oil were pumped for around 400 kilometres through the new link from Abu Dhabi to the port of Fujairah went to a refinery in Pakistan," Khadem Abdullah Al- Qubaisi, managing director of project operator International Petroleum Investment Co. (IPIC) said.

It is understood that the first shipment of 500,000 barrels of oil from the Habshan oil fields was loaded onto a tanker and sent to Pakistan Refinery Co. IPIC owns a stake in the plant.

IPIC began construction of the pipeline in 2008 and it was completed in November 2010. The total cost of the project is estimated at around Dh12 billion (USD 3.27 billion), one of the largest pipeline ventures in the Middle East.

The 48-inch diameter, 400-kilometre long pipeline, runs overland from the Habshan oil fields to Fujairah. The system is capable of pumping as much as 1.8 million barrels a day and has eight tanks with a storage capability of one million barrels each, nine multi-purpose pumping terminals and three offshore loading facilities.

The new pipeline means that Abu Dhabi is now able to bypass the risky Hormuz Strait, through which approximately a fifth of the world's crude exports, including all of Abu Dhabi's exports of about 2 million barrels, pass every day.