âExploding oil?!â The Middle East is about to find out | CNN Business
The Strait of Hormuz has reopened, for now, and Middle Eastern countries that shut off their oil wells during the war (the term is actually âshut inâ) are about to turn those valves back the other way and find out what theyâve got. It could be a gusher. Or, if President Donald Trumpâs predictions were accurate, a series of underground explosions could cause the oil wells to deliver a trickle. Thatâs highly unlikely. But, as with most of Trumpâs sensational claims, thereâs at least a kernel of truth to it. Shortly after Iran effectively shut down the Strait of Hormuz to foreign tankers, local energy producers ran out of places to store the accumulating oil and gas. Many neighboring Middle Eastern wells had shut in their production. The threat of drone attacks forced several Saudi, Emirati and Iraqi facilities to shut in during the war, too. Iran had to shut in its own wells this month after the United States started blockading the strait. Shut-ins are not like flipping off a light switch. They represent a complex engineering challenge that involves serious physics and meticulous planning over the course of days or even weeks. When oil wells are shut in, the pressure un
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