In a widening of its military campaign against Iran, Israel targeted Iran’s critical energy infrastructure at gas and petrochemical refineries on Saturday, according to a statement from Iran’s oil ministry.
The statement said Israeli drones had targeted a section of the South Pars Gas Field in Bushehr Province. South Pars is one of the world’s largest gas fields and a critical part of Iran’s energy production. The Fajr Jam Gas Refining Company was also targeted, the ministry said.
Iran is one of the world’s major energy producers. It has the second-largest gas reserves in the world and fourth-largest crude oil reserves.
Videos posted to social media and verified by The Times showed a large fire burning at the South Pars gas refinery in Iran’s southern Bushehr Province.
The explosions took production lines at both facilities offline, the ministry statement said, even as firefighters and emergency crew had largely contained the blazes.
An Israeli military spokesman did not respond to a request for comment on the strikes.
The attacks on Iran’s energy infrastructure on the second day of the Israel-Iran conflict represented a widening of the fighting, which began on Friday with Israel launching attacks on Iran’s military and nuclear sites and assassinating its top military chain of command. Iran retaliated by firing ballistic missiles and drones on Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Both sides have said the fighting will go on despite international calls for de-escalation.
“We have entered the second phase of the war, which is extremely dangerous and destructive,” said Abdollah Babakhani, an expert on Iran’s energy sector based in Germany. Attacking Iran’s energy infrastructure, he added, “will be a disaster because repairing them will be costly and take time.”
A senior official at the oil ministry said that the ministry had previously placed its staff at refineries and energy fields on full alert and its emergency and fire crews on highest alert, anticipating that Israel might target energy infrastructure. The official said that damages were still being assessed and officials were holding a series of emergency meetings.
Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, said that in light of Israel’s attacks across Iran, the country would launch a fiercer retaliation strike on Israel, Iranian news media reported.
Hamid Hosseini, a member of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce energy committee, said that, in addition to the two attacks on infrastructure sites, Israel had also struck an office building in northern Tehran that belonged to the oil ministry. The building housed an engineering department involved in expanding Iran’s oil and energy fields, Mr. Hosseini said in a telephone interview.
Iran has been battling an acute energy crisis for months because of gas shortages. The country’s power plants and electricity production rely nearly completely on natural gas, and to manage the shortages, the government started scheduling widespread power cuts for residential, commercial and industrial usage.
The government has said the gas shortage is because demand outmatches production and economic sanctions have crippled Iran’s ability to upgrade and invest in its energy infrastructure.
Iranian news media reported that air defenses had been activated in several locations, including Bandar Abbas, Tabriz, Isfahan and Tehran, because of Israeli attacks late on Saturday night. Bandar Abbas is a major shipping port, and Isfahan and Tabriz both have energy refineries and military bases. Residents of Tehran said they could hear loud explosions and air defenses firing nonstop.
Tehran’s governor announced that government employees of Tehran province would work remotely until Wednesday with the exception of military, intelligence, banks, medical centers and municipal services, the state news agency IRNA reported.
Farnaz Fassihi is the United Nations bureau chief for The Times, leading coverage of the organization, and also covers Iran and the shadow war between Iran and Israel. She is based in New York.
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