Can a Pipeline Under the Sea Make India Free From the Hormuz Trap?

The Strait of Hormuz has long been India’s quiet vulnerability. Nearly two-thirds of India’s LNG imports passed through this narrow waterway in 2025, and the recent blockade made that dependence dangerously visible. With alternative sea routes adding 20 to 35 days to delivery times and freight costs climbing, India began treating energy security as a strategic emergency rather than a planning exercise.

The proposed Middle East-India Deepwater Pipeline (MEIDP) is now the centrepiece of India’s response. Estimated at ₹40,000 crore, the pipeline would run roughly 1,600 kilometres from Ras Al Jifan in Oman to Porbandar in Gujarat, diving to depths of up to 3,450 metres — making it one of the deepest undersea pipelines in the world. The petroleum ministry will ask GAIL, Engineers India, and Indian Oil Corporation to prepare a detailed feasibility report, building on pre-feasibility work already done by private consortium SAGE, which even laid 3,000 metres of test pipeline to study seabed conditions.

The project unlocks more than just Oman’s gas. Once built, the pipeline could tap reserves from the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkmenistan — a region holding 2,500 trillion cubic feet of gas. At a pipeline tariff of around $2 to $2.25 per mmbtu, it would also cost significantly less than spot LNG, saving India an estimated $1 billion annually and anchoring long-term supply security well beyond the Hormuz chokepoint.