DUBAI: Israel’s defence minister said on Monday (Apr 6) that Israel attacked the South Pars petrochemical plant at Assaluyeh.
Defence Minister Israel Katz said that his country had “just carried out a powerful strike on the largest petrochemical facility in Iran, located in Assaluyeh, a central target responsible for about 50 per cent of the country’s petrochemical production”.
Several explosions were heard at Iran’s South Pars Petrochemical complex in Assaluyeh, Iranian news agency Fars reported on Monday.
Companies that provide electricity, water and oxygen to Assaluyeh were attacked, but the Pars petrochemical company has not been damaged, reported Tasnim, another local news agency.
It added that the electricity supply to all Assaluyeh petrochemicals units had been cut.
South Pars is the Iranian side of the world’s largest offshore natural gas field.
Located in the Persian Gulf, the reservoir is shared by Iran and Qatar. It holds an estimated 51 trillion cubic metres of usable gas – enough to supply the world’s needs for 13 years.
An Israeli attack in March on South Pars facilities sparked major Iranian attacks targeting oil and gas infrastructure across the Gulf Arab states, including strikes on Qatar’s huge Ras Laffan liquefied natural gas facility.
After that attack, United States President Donald Trump said Israel would not hit South Pars again, but at the same time warned that if Iran continued striking Qatar’s energy infrastructure, the US would “massively blow up the entirety” of the field.