Oil Underinvestment Could Hinder US’ Iran

No matter how the Iran war gets resolved, the US and other countries will be forced to reckon with a global oil market in complete disarray. Underinvestment in the oil industry makes the current supply shock much riskier worldwide, industry experts say, forcing the US, the EU, and various Gulf countries into a scramble over where and how to extract. Prior to the US’ attack on Iran on February 28, the situation had already been precarious. Iran basically controls the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s busiest oil shipping channel. Transportation through this channel is currently closed, despite President Donald Trump’s promise to keep it open. Regardless of how this situation resolves, the broader implications of structural underinvestment across the oil and gas value chain have exposed just how unstable the global energy infrastructure is. “This is not your father’s energy sector anymore,” Adam Turnquist, Chief Technical Strategist for LPL Financial, says. Essentially, there was a shift from “drill drill drill” to returning cash to shareholders through dividends and free cash flow, he explained. This change led to better stock performance and improved financial metrics, such as credit spreads and default swaps. But, Turnquist adds, “there’s evidence of under-investment.” ‘A Multi-Million-Barrel Disruption’ Recall the 2011‑2014 time frame when oil prices were above $100 per barrel. Major oil companies like ExxonMobil, Chevron Corp, BP plc, Shell plc and TotalEnergies SE enjoyed strong cash flows, allowing them to generate substantial profits and reward shareholders. When oil prices collapsed between 2014 and 2016, institutional shareholders pushed hard for capital discipline instead of growth. Corporations, rather than drilling aggressively, returned troves of cash to investors via buybacks and dividends. In 2023, alone, Exxon, Chevron, Shell, TotalEnergies, and BP returned a record $114 billion to shareholders — 76% higher than their average payouts. “That translated into lower reinvestment rates, fewer long‑cycle megaproject sanctions, and a bias toward short‑cycle barrels, even as global demand continued to grow,” Benny Wong, Senior Energy Analyst at PitchBook, told Global Finance. There was also an energy transition, and companies prioritized ESG (environmental, social, and governance) over long-term oil projects, leading major funds to reduce fossil fuel investments. “The result is a thinner spare capacity buffer and a smaller pipeline of readily deployable projects, which limits the industry’s ability to backfill a sudden, multi‑million‑barrel disruption like the one arising from the Iran conflict,” Wong added. Oil Prices Spike So far, the shock is reverberating across the globe. Brent crude, the international benchmark, entered 2026 oversupplied, with forward prices in the $50s, according to Chas Johnston, CreditSights senior analyst. On Monday, the price of Brent crude spiked to $119.50 per barrel—the highest it has been since the summer of 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine. “It’s nearly the same cadence,” Turnquist says, citing Bloomberg data. See the chart below. West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the U.S. benchmark, also saw similar price spikes, briefly reaching $119.48 per barrel. By late Monday, prices fell back below $90 per barrel, following mixed signals from US leadership, including contradictory statements from Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth about the conflict’s timeline. And it could get worse, according to Wood Mackenzie, a consultancy firm for the energy sector. On Tuesday, the firm determined that $200 per barrel “is not outside the realms of possibility in 2026.” To quell the panic, extreme measures are under consideration. The 32 member countries of the International Energy Agency (IEA) agreed on Wednesday to make 400 million barrels of oil from their emergency reserves available to the market to address the current disruption. That’s double the amount the IEA put into the market in 2022. Over the weekend, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the US could potentially release oil from its 400 million barrels of reserve to lower gas prices. Trump subsequently confirmed that he would ease sanctions on certain countries to help reduce oil prices. This followed a recent 30-day waiver announced by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on sanctions for Russian oil sales to India, due to global supply pressures. Can Any Country Fill The Gap? Further complicating matters, oil-producing countries like Bahrain and Kuwait declared “force majeure,” stopping production as storage nears capacity and exports falter. With Iran, Israel, and the U.S. each targeting energy infrastructure and the narrow Strait of Hormuz under threat, it remains unclear which alternative transport routes or supply sources could fill the gap. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates remain two key options because they hold most of OPEC’s effective spare capacity. However, analysts still question how much cushion truly exists and how long they can sustain it. Reports already suggest Saudi Arabia and the UAE have begun reducing output by several million barrels per day. “In other words,” Wong says, “the buffer is meaningful but not unlimited, particularly if the disruption is prolonged or widens regionally.” West African and Guyanese deepwater projects won’t quickly replace lost supply, either. However, they could strengthen global production over the medium to long term, Wong says. Guyana’s rapidly developing offshore sector, for example, could add more output in the coming years, though expansion will still take time. Then there’s Namibia, which has had significant offshore discoveries in recent years. BP, Shell and TotalEnergies are among the companies that have set up shop there, but as Wong puts it: “Commercial production is still a few years away.” US Shale Is Another Issue As for the US, a rapid ramp now requires more than just a strong price signal. “Producers are operating with much tighter capital discipline, and scaling quickly requires having available rigs, completion crews, frac sand and pipeline takeaway capacity, all of which can act as bottlenecks,” Wong says. CreditSights’ Johnston agrees. “The ability for US producers to respond is also quite limited, because it still takes six to nine months to bring new production online, even from the short-cycle shale industry,” he says. Until then, the stakes remain high. Wood Mackenzie projects roughly 15 million barrels per day (mbpd) of Gulf oil exports could be lost if the Strait of Hormuz remains disrupted. They note that alternatives like US shale and uncompleted wells might only add a few hundred thousand barrels per day over months — not even close to filling the 15 million‑barrel gap. The circumstances are enough to give analysts pause, given the cavalier attitude coming from the US. Turnquist echoed a point his firm’s chief macro strategist made during a recent call: “You can’t shake the hornet’s nest and then put it back away.” Once geopolitical issues ignite, they rarely resolve quickly, he said, pointing to wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Russia-Ukraine as examples. “There’s really no concrete signs that it’s going to end anytime soon,” he added.