Analyst: Reopening Middle Eastern oil wells faces technical challenges, with a relatively low risk of large-scale permanent damage

BlockBeats News, June 24 — With the Strait of Hormuz resuming navigation, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, and other countries are gradually preparing to restart some oil wells that were shut down during the conflict. The market is watching whether production capacity can be restored smoothly after long-term shutdowns, and whether permanent damage will occur.

Analysts say that both shutting down and restarting oil wells involve complex engineering operations. Prolonged idle wells may lead to issues such as changes in underground pressure, equipment corrosion, and declines in production capacity, but the industry has mature experience in responding to these problems. Vikas Dwivedi, Global Oil & Gas Strategist at Macquarie Group, said that uncertainty remains regarding the actual performance of oil wells after restart.

In response to U.S. President Trump’s earlier warnings that shutdowns could cause oil fields to “explode” and suffer permanent damage, Natasha Kaneva, Head of Global Commodities Strategy at J.P. Morgan, said that the related risks are likely being exaggerated. Historically, whether it was during large-scale well shutdowns amid the 2020 pandemic or OPEC production cut measures, Middle Eastern oil-producing countries have not seen significant long-term capacity losses.

Analysts believe that although the restart process requires gradually restoring underground pressure balance through methods such as water injection and gas injection, and coordinating simultaneous operations across multiple oil fields in the region, the likelihood of large-scale infrastructure damage or permanent loss of production capacity is relatively low.