Israel attacked Iran’s energy infrastructure. The impact on two important gas pipelines affected the supply of heating and cooking gas in several provinces in the Islamic country.
According to a report from The New York Times citing two Western officials and a military strategist linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Israeli operation targeted multiple points along two main gas pipelines in the provinces of Fars and Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, which transport gas from the south to large cities such as Tehran and Isfahan.
According to local officials, the attack resulted in the disruption of heating and cooking gas supplies to residential homes, government buildings and factories in at least five Iranian provinces.
It is estimated that the pipeline attacks affected approximately 15% of Iran’s daily natural gas production. “The level of impact was very high because these are two significant pipelines going south to north. We have never seen anything like this in scale and scope,” said Homayoun Falakshahi, senior energy analyst at Kpler.
Western officials cited in the report indicated that the attack required “deep” knowledge of Iranian infrastructure and precise coordination.
One of the first to report the attack was Iranian Oil Minister Javad Owji, who referred to what happened as an “act of sabotage” by terrorists. “The enemy’s plan was to completely disrupt the flow of gas in winter to several main cities and provinces in our country,” he said.
However, a report later emerged indicating that Israel was the one who attacked Iran’s energy infrastructure as a warning about the potential damage it could inflict.
It is important to mention that although Iran claims not to be involved in the terrorist attacks against Israel on October 7 and denies other attacks against Israel, it still supports and provides weapons and resources to terrorist groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas.
Iranian minister tries to minimize damage
The Minister of Petroleum tried to downplay the damage caused by the attack, ensuring that after only 24 hours of work, everything was repaired and services were re-established. However, his statements are at odds with comments from local governors and officials from Iran’s national gas company, who reported widespread service outages in five provinces, as well as the closure of government buildings.
Israel behind chemical factory explosion
Western officials revealed that Israel also recently caused an explosion inside a chemical factory outside Tehran. However, local officials say the blast was due to an accident in the factory’s fuel tank.
