Iran protests spread to critical oil, gas facilities

Civil unrest that has swept across Iran following the death of a young woman in police custody risks causing disruption to the country's lucrative oil and gas sector, with videos being shared on social media today showing workers on strike at Iran's largest oil refinery in Abadan.

The unverified videos posted on Twitter and Telegram show crowds of oil workers gathering outside the 400,000 b/d Abadan refinery in Khuzestan earlier on Tuesday. The workers, some in uniform, are chanting slogans and "protesting", according to the narrator of one of the videos.

The incident at Abadan comes after videos began to surface yesterday of similar strike action at petrochemical facilities in the coastal city of Assaluyeh in Iran's southern Bushehr province, where gas from the giant offshore South Pars field is processed. Workers at one facility were heard to chant: "We have gone on strike to support our compatriots." In other videos, some groups were shouting slogans targeting Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: "This is the year of blood. Seyyed Ali [Khamenei] will be overthrown."

The strike in Assaluyeh was primarily being carried out by contractors, rather than permanent staff employed directly by state-owned refiner NIORDC, according to an Iranian industry source. And today's videos suggest contract workers are also leading the strikes at Abadan, with several individuals wearing the uniforms of Iranian oil service company IGC. The firm is involved in a number of projects at the Abadan refinery, including upgrading the facility to produce higher-quality oil products.

Iran's state news agency Irna has acknowledged that protests took place in Assaluyeh yesterday but described them as "limited" and said they were related to a dispute over wages. The agency has dismissed the reports of unrest at Abadan though, insisting that operations at the refinery were "going on as normal".

This week's protests at Assaluyeh and Abadan mark the first time that the unrest, triggered by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody last month, has spread to Iran's key oil and gas sector, which remains the lifeblood of the country's economy despite US sanctions being reimposed on Tehran's oil exports in 2018. Iran exported just shy of 750,000 b/d of crude in the third quarter of this year, according to Argus tracking. Although still significantly lower than pre-sanctions levels of more than 2mn b/d, it is close to double what Iran was selling in late 2019 and much of 2020.

So far, the unrest has been largely contained and is unlikely to have had any meaningful impact on the production or export of Iranian oil. But any further escalation over the coming days or weeks, particularly in Iran's oil and gas heartland of Khuzestan, could disrupt operations.

By Nader Itayim