UAE's historical antipathy toward Iran may force the country to reroute the prospective underwater gas pipeline from Iran to Oman and thus raise the cost of the project from an estimated $1 billion to $1.5 billion.

The pipeline is projected to have shipment capacity of 1 billion cubic feet of gas per day, which may be increased to 2 billion cubic feet of gas daily to meet the growing gas demand in the region.

Oman, enjoying a good relationship with Iran, has long considered the country's prodigious gas reserves in the South Pars field as it hopes to feed energy-intensive industries and recently constructed liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plants.

Despite the lifting of international sanctions on Iran this past January, US pressure on Oman to find other suppliers have hampered progress on the project.