Most of the world's attention in this conflict has been fixed on
one geographical feature, the Strait of Hormuz.
But there is another location that matters just as much to the
global oil system, and in some respects more.
It sits roughly 70 nautical miles outside the Strait on the
eastern coast of the United Arab Emirates.
It is called Fujairah, and according to UAE authorities, it
was struck in a drone attack on the 4th of May 2026, an attack
they described as originating from Iran.
To understand why that single strike sent immediate alarm
through global energy markets, you first need to understand
what Fujairah was built for. Because it was not simply a
port, it was an answer to a specific threat.
And on the 4th of May, that answer was itself under attack.
The strike broke what had been a fragile period of relative calm.
A ceasefire reported to have been brokered through regional
mediation and agreed between Washington and Tehran had taken
effect on the 8th of April, pausing more than two months of
intense fighting across the Gulf region.
For four weeks, the UAE had experienced a pause and direct
strikes. During the earlier phase of the
conflict, the UAE Ministry of Defense had reported
intercepting and destroying large numbers of drones and
missiles. UAE residents in Dubai and Abu
Dhabi had received emergency phone alerts warning of incoming
missile threats. The ceasefire, though shaky and
unresolved at its core, had at least paused the immediate
physical danger to civilian infrastructure.
Then, on the 4th of May, the Fujairah Media Office confirmed
that a fire had broken out at the Fujairah Oil Industry Zone
following what authorities described as a drone attack.
Civil defense teams were deployed immediately to contain
a blaze. 3 Indian nationals working at the facility
sustained moderate injuries and were taken to hospital,
according to the Fujairah Media office.
Separately, the UAE Ministry of Defense announced that its
forces had intercepted incoming missiles over UAE territorial
waters, with at least one additional projectile falling
into the sea. The UAE's Ministry of Foreign
Affairs condemned the strikes as an unacceptable transgression
and a violation of international law, adding that the UAE held
Iran fully responsible and reserve its right to respond.
Tehran's state broadcaster, citing a senior military source,
said Iran had no pre plan operation targeting the reported
sites, according to Al Jazeera. It was a denial that UAE
officials and much of the international community were not
prepared to accept. To understand why this attack
drew immediate alarm from energy markets, it is necessary to
understand what Fujairah actually is and what role it
plays in the global oil system. The port sits on the Gulf of
Oman, facing the Indian Ocean on the eastern side of the UAE
peninsula. That geography is not
incidental, it is the entire point.
When Iran threatened over the course of decades to close the
Strait of Hormuz in response to Western pressure, the UAE
responded by building a way around it.
The result was the Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline, also known
as the Habshan Fujairah Pipeline, a 406 kilometer artery
running from Abu Dhabi's inland oil fields eastward to the
Fujairah terminal. The pipeline has a capacity of
approximately 1 1/2 million barrels per day.
It was specifically conceived and built to allow the UAE to
export its oil without using the straight at all.
The broader Fujairah Oil Industry Zone has grown far
beyond that pipeline into one of the most important energy hubs
on earth. The port holds approximately
18,000,000 cubic meters of storage capacity, making it one
of the largest crude oil and fuel storage facilities anywhere
in the world. It is ranked among the top
bunkering ports globally, reportedly trailing only
Singapore, Rotterdam and China's Joshon in terms of marine fuel
volumes. In practical terms, this means
that a vast proportion of the world's commercial shipping
fleet refuels at Fujairah. Container ships, bulk carriers
and tankers crossing between Asia, the Middle East and Europe
all depend on it as a critical refueling stop.
Before the current conflict, industry figures suggested
roughly 12,000 vessels called at the Fujairah anchorage area each
year. The Strait of Hormuz, by
comparison, carries an estimated 1/5 of global oil supply through
a waterway that narrows to approximately 33 kilometers at
its tightest point. It is by almost any measure the
single most consequential maritime choke point in the
world for energy. During the conflict that began
on the 28th of February, the Straight had been severely
disrupted, with normal commercial shipping
significantly reduced. Major cargo firms rerouted
vessels. Insurance premiums reached multi
year highs. The disruption cascaded through
oil markets almost immediately. Fujairah in that environment
became not merely an important hub, but an essential one.
Because transit through the Strait had become so dangerous
and costly, Fujairah represented the primary remaining pathway
through which the UAE could continue to get its oil to
market. The Abu Dhabi Crude oil Pipeline
allowed UAE production to flow east of Fujairah and from there
directly on to tankers bound for Asia and beyond, entirely
bypassing the contested waterway to the West.
The Straits disruption had already elevated Fujairah to
critical status. It had become the workaround.
And then the workaround was struck.
Is in this context that the 4th of May attack takes on its wider
significance. Fujairah had experienced earlier
incidents during the conflict. Though reporting on their
precise scale and sequence varied, each had represented a
temporary disruption. The 4th of May strike, coming
after nearly a month of ceasefire, raised the question
of whether targeting Fujairah had become a deliberate and
persistent element of a broader strategy of economic pressure.
Whether the strike was deliberate targeting of critical
infrastructure or one part of a broader barrage of projectiles
that day cannot be stated with certainty.
Iran denied pre planning the attack.
There was, however, a separate notable development.
On the same day, Iranian media reported that Iran's
Revolutionary Guards Navy had issued a map suggesting an
expanded maritime zone of control near the Strait of
Hormuz, though the precise meaning and intent of that claim
remained unclear. The reported map, according to
those accounts, encompassed the UAE ports of Fujairah and
Kerfaken, as well as the coastline of the Amal Queen
emirate. The significance of that claim,
whether symbolic or operational, was not lost on observers.
Issuing A territorial assertion that places Fujairah within a
claimed zone of Iranian maritime influence on the same day that
Fujairah's oil zone was struck invites a particular
interpretation. Analysts may read it as an
attempt to signal that Iran considers the UAE's eastern
coast and its energy export infrastructure to fall within
its sphere of coercive influence.
What Abu Dhabi, its Gulf partners and Washington made of
that signal would shape the days that followed.
What can be assessed is the strategic logic that would make
Fujairah an attractive target for any actor wishing to
maximize economic pressure on both the UAE and the wider
global energy system. Simultaneously.
The Strait of Hormuz, already severely disrupted, had
effectively closed one major export pathway.
Fujairah represented the workaround.
Striking it repeatedly, if that is what the pattern reflects,
will mean closing both exits at once, not through formal
blockade, but through sustained operational disruption and an
insurance and security risks severe enough to deter normal
shipping activity. That logic, if it applies, has
consequences that extend well beyond the UAE.
The global commercial shipping fleet relies on Fujairah's
bunkering services to keep moving.
A port that cannot safely operate does not merely affect
UAE oil exports, it affects the fuel supply for vessels crossing
between Asia, Africa and Europe. Shipping companies recalculate
routes. Insurers reprice coverage.
Vessels divert to more distant alternatives.
Each of these adjustments adds cost, time and complexity to
supply chains that underpin the movement of almost everything
from consumer electronics to food.
Commodities markets reacted to the attacks, with oil prices
moving higher amid increased risk perception surrounding
Fujairah's operational status. The broader pattern here
connects to something well established in the study of
modern conflict. Energy infrastructure has
consistently been among the most strategically valuable targets
precisely because it's disruption radiates outward.
In the Gulf region specifically, every previous escalation
involving Iran has included some dimension of energy
infrastructure pressure, whether through threats to the Strait,
attacks on tankers, or, as in 2019, drone and missile strikes
on Saudi Arabia's of Kayak oil processing facility.
The scale and methods of those earlier incidents varied.
The consistent thread running through them is this energy
infrastructure across the Gulf is not merely an economic asset,
it is a lever. And those who have sought to
apply pressure on a region have repeatedly demonstrated
awareness of that fact. The scenario that concerns
analysts most is not a single dramatic strike, but accumulated
disruption. A port attacked repeatedly, even
without catastrophic damage on any single occasion, becomes
difficult to operate safely. Workers are placed at risk.
Vessels become reluctant to anchor insurance underwriters
withdraw coverage or price it prohibitively.
Operational continuity becomes fragile even without total
destruction of facilities. Given that Fujairah had already
experienced multiple incidents in the weeks preceding the
ceasefire, the 4th of May attack, arriving after a pause
that appeared to be holding, raised the question of whether
the disruption would now continue, deepen or broaden to
other infrastructure along the UAE East Coast.
What this moment illustrates more than any other development
in this conflict, is that the economic stakes are not simply
about the Strait of Hormuz. The Strait has received the
majority of global attention, and rightly so.
But Fujairah represents the safety valve that was built
precisely because everyone understood the straight was
vulnerable. Targeting that safety valve, if
the sequence of strikes reflects A deliberate strategy, will mean
closing both exits at once. The ceasefire that took effect
on the 8th of April had not resolved the fundamental
disputes driving this conflict. Iran's nuclear program and the
question of maritime freedom in the Strait of Hormuz remained
unresolved. The 4th of May strike suggested
the fragile pause was deteriorating.
Whether that deterioration continued, deepened or was
pulled back from would depend on decisions being made in
Washington, Tehran and Abu Dhabi in the days that followed.
What was already clear was this the global oil system had been
built with Fujairah as its eastern pressure valve.
That valve had now been struck and the world was watching to
see how much pressure it could still absorb.
This is Epic Fury, the US Iran war podcast.