Iran’s energy industry in South Pars and Asaluyeh came under attack on Wednesday, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards responded with evacuation warnings for several oil facilities across Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Qatar. The escalation is part of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, which has been raging since the end of February.
Following are facts on Iran’s energy industry, exports, and the impact of Western sanctions:
OIL PRODUCTION AND INFRASTRUCTURE
Iran, the third-largest producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, exports 90% of its crude via Kharg Island, for shipping through the narrow Strait of Hormuz.
From February 28 to March 11, Iran exported between 1.1 million barrels per day and 1.5 million bpd, according to TankerTracker.com and vessel tracking service Kpler.
Iran pumps about 4.5% of global oil supplies. Iran’s output is about 3.3 million barrels per day of crude, plus 1.3 million bpd of condensate and other liquids.
Iran’s domestic refineries have a capacity of 2.6 million bpd, according to the consultancy FGE.
In 2025, it exported nearly 820,000 bpd of fuel, including LPG, according to Kpler, slightly below 2024 levels.
Iran’s oil and gas production facilities are concentrated in southwestern provinces: Khuzestan for oil and Bushehr for gas and condensate from South Pars.
WHO BUYS IRAN’S OIL?
Chinese private refiners are the main buyers. The U.S. Treasury has imposed sanctions on some Chinese refiners for purchases of Iranian oil.
China says it does not recognise unilateral sanctions against its trade partners, but its purchases of Iranian crude have declined.
As Iran also seeks to protect its stocks from potential U.S. strikes, it built up a record amount of oil on the water of about 200 million barrels, equivalent to about two days of global consumption, data from Kpler published on February 27 showed.
Iran has skirted sanctions for years by taking measures such as transferring oil from one ship to another at sea and changing the origin of the oil, and hiding tanker locations from satellites.
WORLD’S LARGEST GAS RESERVE
Iran produces natural gas from the offshore South Pars gas field, which makes up around a third of the world’s largest reservoir of natural gas.
Iran shares the reservoir with major exporter Qatar, which calls its field the North Dome.
Sanctions and technical constraints have meant most gas Tehran produces from South Pars is for domestic use.
Iran’s gas production totalled 276 billion cubic metres in 2024, with 94% consumed in Iran, according to data by the Gas Exporting Countries Forum.
Israeli attacks in June last year struck four units of Phase 14 of South Pars, around 200 km (125 miles) from Qatar’s gas installations, many of which are joint ventures with energy giants ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips of the U.S.
Qatar has made hundreds of billions of dollars exporting liquefied natural gas for nearly three decades.
The entire reservoir contains an estimated 1,800 trillion cubic feet of usable gas – enough to supply the entire world’s needs for 13 years.
(Compiled by Andrew Mills, Federico Maccioni, Dmitry Zhdannikov, Ahmad Ghaddar and Alex Lawler; Editing by Simon Webb and Alex Richardson)