Time is running out for President Donald Trump to reach a deal with Iran.
Or maybe it's the other way around: Iran could be the one facing a "ticking time bomb" - in its own oil wells! With just days before they're destroyed. So says Trump, who can't seem to stop talking about oil spills.
There is a grain of truth in what Trump is saying, although it would not happen in the way he describes – and certainly not within the short timeframe he mentioned.
Soon after Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz to foreign tankers, domestic energy producers ran out of places to store the oil and gas that was accumulating. Many wells in neighboring Middle Eastern countries were forced to shut in (the industry uses the term).
Iran was also forced to shut down its wells this month after the United States began a blockade of the strait.
Shutting down wells is not like turning off a light switch. It represents a complex engineering challenge that involves serious physics and careful planning over days or even weeks.
When oil wells stop producing, the pressure underground can become unbalanced, deforming the underground structure. These changes can damage the reservoirs, which can create similar problems for nearby wells. Water can seep in, reducing the well's production potential.
And, yes, in rare cases, explosions can also occur.
But serious damage – let alone an explosion – is unlikely, oil industry analysts agree. Wells have been shut down for long periods before, including in Iran.
What did Trump say?
April 23, Oval Office:
“If they can’t move their oil, their entire oil infrastructure is going to explode. You know what that means? Because they have nowhere to store it, and because they have nowhere to store it, if they have to stop it … something happens underground that basically leaves it in a very bad state and never fully recovers.”
April 26, Fox News:
"When you have, you know, lines with large amounts of oil flowing through your system, if for whatever reason that line gets shut down because you can't keep getting it into tanks or ships, which is what happened to them (they don't have ships because of the blockade), what happens is that line explodes from the inside, both mechanically and on the ground."
May 4, Hugh Hewitt Show:
"You know, their oil, when you stop the oil, underground – even mechanically as well – but underground it tends to almost 100% of the time, literally explode and destroy everything around it. And you can never get that oil back."
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