Some analysts have predicted that Western sanctions on Russia, combined with the EU’s embargo on Russian crude oil and tanker insurance, would lead to the inevitable shut down of Russian oil wells as inventories build up in the pariah country. But Russian President Vladimir Putin says that the country will not be blocking off their oil wells. While oil embargos and sanctions may be temporary, blocking off oil wells isn’t—at least not typically. What the world painfully realized shortly after the Saudi Arabia-Russian oil price war right before the pandemic is that when Russian wells are idled for a lengthy period of time, it can lead to permanent shut-ins, with operational challenges proving insurmountable in some of their maturing fields. On top of that, if certain oilfields are pulled out of service, the quality of the Urals blend—made up of oil from multiple oilfields—could be altered, thereby decreasing its […]