Steel Pipes for Drilling Oil Are the New Semiconductors

A strategically important bottleneck is emerging.

A steel pipe is externally welded in a machine at the Chelyabinsk Pipe Rolling Plant PJSC, part of ChelPipe Group, in Chelyabinsk, Russia.

Tracy Alloway

It's no secret that oil rules everything right now.Governments around the world are trying to bring down inflation, a big portion of which is rising energy costs. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve has basically soft-pegged itself to the price of gas in America, vowing to hike rates and risk a rise in unemployment until price pressures fade.But even with crude oil prices firmly above $100 a barrel, we’ve yet to see production expand enough to bring prices down.

So what gives? While participants in the energy industry have cited everything from unwilling investors to government regulation and a shortage of labor, supply chain issues are also said to be playing a part — with one key component recently assuming a starring role.