Useful information
Prime News delivers timely, accurate news and insights on global events, politics, business, and technology
Israel has hit some of the most vital oil and gas facilities in Iran, the first attacks of this type despite decades of rivalry between the nations of the Middle East, increasing the fear of a broad and threatening conflict of agitation for the markets.
Late on Saturday, the Iranian Ministry of Petroleum said that Israel hit a key fuel tank, while another oil refinery in the capital city of Tehran was also in flames, since emergency equipment rushed to turn off the fires in separate sites.
Iran has also partially suspended production at the world’s largest gasfield, the South Pars, which he shares with neighbor Qatar, after an Israeli strike caused a fire there on Saturday.
The last round of projectile exchange began on Friday after Israel launched attacks on the military and nuclear sites of Iran and murdered several senior military and nuclear scientists. Tehran retaliates when firing ballistic missiles and drones in multiple cities of Israel in the middle of the so -called global decallation.
According to Iranian state media, Israeli attacks have killed at least 80 people, including 20 children, and injured another 800 in the last two days. Israeli authorities said 10 people had been killed in Iranian strikes, with more than 180 injured.
Israel’s unprecedented and sudden attacks against Iran’s energy facilities are ready to interrupt oil supplies from the Middle East, and world fuel prices could shake, even when both countries threaten even more intense attacks.
So what are the key energy sites in Iran in Israeli attacks? And why do they matter?
What important facilities were beaten in Israeli attacks?
Iran has the second largest natural gas reserves in the world and the third largest crude oil reserves, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA) of the United States government, and its energy infrastructure has long been a potential objective for Israel.
Before the current spiral in its conflict, Israel had greatly avoided pointing to the Iranian energy facilities, in the midst of the pressure of its allies, including the US. UU., On the risks for world prices of oil and gas for any attack of this type.
That has changed now.
On Friday, Israel Defense Minister Israel Katz warned that if Iran took reprisals to their attacks, “Tehran will burn.”
At the last minute on Saturday, the main fires broke out at two opposite ends of the Iranian capital: the Shahran fuel and gas deposit, northwest of the center of Tehran, and one of Iran’s largest oil refineries in Shahr Rey, south of the city.
Although Iran’s student news network later denied that Shahr Rey’s refinery had been beaten by Israel, and said it was still working, he admitted that a fuel tank outside the refinery had set fire. He did not explain what caused the fire.
But Iran’s Ministry of Petroleum confirmed that Israel had hit Shahran’s deposit, where firefighters are still trying to control the flames.
Israeli air attacks also attacked the South Pars field, the Bushehr province of southern Iran on the high seas. The world’s largest gas field is the two -thirds source of Iran’s gas production, which is consumed nationwide. Iran shares the South Pars with its neighbor Qatar, where North Field is called.
The attacks triggered significant damage and shots in the phase 14 natural gas processing installation and arrested a high seas production platform that generates 12 million cubic meters per day, the semi -official news agency Tasnim reported.
In a separate Israeli attack, the fire exploded at the Gaslada Gaslada Fajr gas plant, one of the largest processing facilities in Iran, also in the Bushehr province, which processes the South Pars fuel. The Iranian Ministry of Petroleum confirmed that the installation was achieved.
Why are these sites important?
Shahran’s oil tank is one of the largest fuel distribution and storage centers in Tehran. It has almost 260 million liters of storage capacity in 11 tanks. It is a vital node in the urban fuel network of the capital, distributing gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel to several terminals in northern Tehran.
The Tehran Refinery, located just south of Tehran, in the Shahr-E Rey district, operated by the Tehran Petroleum Refining Company of state property, is one of the oldest refineries in the country, with a refining capacity of almost 225,000 barrels per day. Experts warn that any interruption of this site, whatever the cause of fire, could force fuel logistics in the most populated and economically significant region of Iran.
In the south, the South South Pars Gasfield in the Gulf contains approximately 1,260 billion cubic feet of recoverable gas, which represents almost 20 percent of the known global reserves.
Meanwhile, the coup in the gas refinery Jam Fajr-E, in the province of Bushehr, threatens to interrupt the supplies of domestic electricity and fuel of Iran, particularly for the provinces of the south and central, which are already under great stress. In Iran, the blackouts cost the economy about $ 250, according to government estimates.
Uncertain global markets
In addition to the uncertainty in global markets, Iran has noticed that it is considering closing the hormuz narrow in the midst of the intensifier conflict with Israel, a measure that would send oil prices.
The Hortuz Strait, which divides Iran on the one hand and Oman and the Arab Emirates joined by the other, is the only marine entry to the Gulf, with almost 20 percent of the global oil consumption that flows through it. EIA describes it as the “most important oil traffic strangulation point in the world.”
Israeli attacks on Friday, which saved Iran’s oil and gas facilities on the first day of the fighting, had already raised oil prices 9 percent, before calming themselves a little. Analysts expect prices to increase abruptly when oil markets open again on Monday.
Alan Eyre, a distinguished diplomatic fellow at the Institute of Middle East, told Al Jazeera that Israel was trying to push the United States to participate in their attacks against Iran. “Ultimately, the best of Israel’s cases is to encourage, if not the regime change, then the fall of this regime,” he said.
“Iran’s options are very limited; they have to respond militarily to save the face in the country (but) it is very unlikely that Iran will be able to cause enough damage to Israel internally or press enough to stop bombing,” Eyre said.
“Iran does not have many allies in the international community, and even if he did, Israel has shown that he is not willing to listen to international opinion,” Eyre added.
