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By Youssef Saba and Ahmed Ghaddar

DUBAI, May 20 (Reuters) - The new crude oil pipeline bypassing the Strait of Hormuz, which the United Arab Emirates began building last year, is 50 percent complete, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) Chief Executive Sultan al Jaber said on Wednesday.

Iran has kept this vital waterway for global oil and gas supplies closed to almost all ships except its own since the US-Israeli strikes that targeted it in February, driving up energy prices, increasing inflation, and raising fears of an economic recession.

The Abu Dhabi Media Office first revealed the existence of the project last week, saying that the UAE will accelerate the construction of a new oil pipeline to double its export capacity through the port of Fujairah by 2027.

The media office said that Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Khalid bin Mohammed bin Zayed directed ADNOC to accelerate the (West-East 1) pipeline project during the Executive Committee meeting.

“Today, the project is nearly 50 percent complete, and we are working to accelerate its completion by 2027,” Al Jaber said during an event organized by the Atlantic Council and broadcast online.

Al Jaber added, "Currently, a large portion of global energy still passes through a very small number of chokepoints. This is precisely why the UAE made the decision more than a decade ago to invest in infrastructure that bypasses the Strait of Hormuz."

The existing Abu Dhabi crude oil pipeline, also known as the Habshan-Fujairah pipeline, can carry up to 1.8 million barrels per day and has proven crucial as the UAE seeks to maximize exports from the Gulf of Oman coast, located just outside the strait.

Al Jaber said that some ADNOC facilities were directly targeted and some infrastructure sustained direct damage, and that damage assessment is still underway. He added that a return to full operational capacity will take weeks in some cases and months in others.