Category World News

Israel and Iran are engaged in attacks for a fifth straight day, with Israel targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities, military sites, oil and gas facilities, and state TV headquarters.

The escalation has raised fears of a widening conflict and turmoil in global energy markets.

Iran is one of the top global producers of oil and gas and holds the world’s second largest proven natural gas reserves and the thirdlargest crude oil reserves, according to the United States Energy Information Administration.

How big is Iran’s oil industry?

With about 157 billion barrels of proven crude oil, Iran holds about a quarter (24 percent) of the Middle East’s and 12 percent of the world’s proven oil reserves.

Iran is the ninth largest oil producer globally and the fourth largest within OPEC, producing about 3.3 million barrels of crude oil per day. It exports roughly 2 million barrels of crude and refined fuel each day.

In 2023, Iran’s net oil export revenues were estimated at $53bn, up sharply from $37bn in 2021. While Iran’s economy is relatively diversified compared with many of its neighbours, oil continues to be a critical source of government income.

However, years of limited foreign investment and international sanctions have kept Iran’s oil production well below its full potential.

After Israel’s attacks on Iran began on Friday, fears of a wider Middle East conflict sent oil prices soaring nearly 7 percent in a single day. Prices have held steady about that level since.

Where are Iran’s oil facilities?

Iran’s oil facilities are spread across several regions, mainly in the south and west of the country. These include onshore oilfields, offshore platforms, refineries, export terminals and pipelines.

Nearly all of Iran’s crude oil flows through Kharg Island, the country’s main export terminal, which handles close to 1.5 million barrels per day.

More than 20 percent of the world’s seaborne oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow maritime chokepoint between Iran and Oman.

Major onshore oilfields include:

• Ahvaz Field – Iran’s largest oilfield and one of the biggest globally
• Gachsaran Field – second-largest Iranian field, producing light crude
• Marun Field – another high-output field near Ahvaz
• Agha Jari, Bibi Hakimeh and Karanj fields – located mostly within Khuzestan province in southwestern Iran, a key oil-producing region

Major offshore fields include:

• Abuzar, Foroozan, Doroud and Salman fields – located in the Gulf and shared with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates

Its main refineries include:

• Abadan Refinery – one of the oldest and largest refineries in the Middle East
• Tehran Refinery – supplies the capital and nearby provinces
• Isfahan, Bandar Abbas, Arak and Tabriz refineries – process various crude types for domestic use and export

How big is Iran’s gas industry?

Iran has the world’s second largest proven natural gas reserves after Russia. They are estimated at 1,200 trillion cubic feet (34 trillion cubic metres), which accounts for 16 percent of global reserves and 45 percent of OPEC’s total.

Iran is the third highest producer of natural gas behind the US and Russia with production reaching 9,361 billion cubic feet (265 billion cubic metres) in 2023, accounting for at least 6 percent of global production.

Like oil, Iran relies heavily on domestic companies to develop its gasfields due to international sanctions, which have limited foreign investment and technology access.

Where are Iran’s gas facilities?

Iran’s gas facilities are concentrated primarily in the south, especially along the Gulf, with major gasfields and processing plants.

Iran’s largest gasfield, and the largest in the world, is the South Pars field, which it shares with Qatar, where it’s known as the North Field.

Other important gasfields are the North Pars, Golshan, Ferdowsi, Kangan and Nar fields.

Iran’s main gas-processing centre is the South Pars Gas Complex, located in Bushehr province.

Which facilities has Israel attacked?

Israel has struck multiple energy facilities, including the South Pars gasfield, Fajr Jam gas plant, Shahran oil depot, Shahr Rey oil refinery and Tehran fuel depots.

Sao Paulo, Brazil – In the far north of Brazil, where the Amazon River collides with the sea, an environmental dilemma has awakened a national political debate.

There, the Brazilian government has been researching the possibility of offshore oil reserves that extend from the eastern state of Rio Grande do Norte all the way to Amapá, close to the border with French Guiana.

That region is known as the Equatorial Margin, and it represents hundreds of kilometres of coastal water.

But critics argue it also represents the government’s conflicting goals under Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva.

During his third term as president, Lula has positioned Brazil as a champion in the fight against climate change. But he has also signalled support for fossil fuel development in regions like the Equatorial Margin, as a means of paying for climate-change policy.

“We want the oil because it will still be around for a long time. We need to use it to fund our energy transition, which will require a lot of money,” Lula said in February.

But at the start of his term in 2023, he struck a different stance. “Our goal is zero deforestation in the Amazon, zero greenhouse gas emissions,” he told Brazil’s Congress.

As the South American country prepares to host the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) later this year, those contradictions have come under even greater scrutiny.

Nicole Oliveira is one of the environmental leaders fighting the prospect of drilling in the Equatorial Margin, including the area at the mouth of the Amazon River, known as Foz do Amazonas.

Her organisation, the Arayara Institute, filed a lawsuit to block an auction scheduled for this week to sell oil exploration rights in the Equatorial Margin. She doubts the government’s rationale that fossil-fuel extraction will finance cleaner energy.

“There is no indication of any real willingness [from the government] to pursue an energy transition,” Oliveira said.

“On the contrary, there is growing pressure on environmental agencies to issue licenses and open up new areas in the Foz do Amazonas and across the entire Equatorial Margin.”

Last Thursday, the federal prosecutor’s office also filed a lawsuit to delay the auction, calling for further environmental assessments and community consultations before the project proceeds.

But on Tuesday, the auction proceeded, with oil exploration rights in the region getting scooped up by consortiums that included Chevron, Exxon and the state-owned petrol company Petrobras.

A government reversal

The fate of the Equatorial Margin has exposed divisions even within Lula’s government.

In May 2023, the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) — the government’s main environmental regulator — denied a request from Petrobras to conduct exploratory drilling at the mouth of the Amazon River.

In its decision, the IBAMA cited environmental risks and a lack of assessments, given the site’s “socio-environmental sensitivity”.

But Petrobras continued to push for a licence to drill in the region. The situation escalated in February this year when IBAMA again rejected Petrobras’s request.

Lula responded by criticising the agency for holding up the process. He argued that the proceeds from any drilling would help the country and bolster its economy.

“We need to start thinking about Brazil’s needs. Is this good or bad for Brazil? Is this good or bad for Brazil’s economy?” Lula told Radio Clube do Para in February.

On May 19, the director of IBAMA, a politician named Rodrigo Agostinho, ultimately overruled his agency’s decision and gave Petrobras the green light to initiate drilling tests in the region.

Petrobras applauded the reversal. In a statement this month to Al Jazeera, it said it had conducted “detailed environmental studies” to ensure the safety of the proposed oil exploration.

It added that its efforts were “fully in line with the principles of climate justice, biodiversity protection, and the social development of the communities where it operates”.

“Petrobras strictly follows all legal and technical requirements established by environmental authorities,” Petrobras wrote.

It also argued that petroleum will continue to be a vital energy source decades into the future, even with the transition to low-carbon alternatives.

Roberto Ardenghy, the president of the Brazilian Petroleum and Gas Institute (IBP), an advocacy group, is among those who believe that further oil exploitation is necessary for Brazil’s continued growth and prosperity.

“It is justified — even from an energy and food security standpoint — that Brazil continues to search for oil in all of these sedimentary basins,” he said.

Ardenghy added that neighbouring countries like Guyana are already profiting from “significant discoveries” near the Equatorial Margin.

“Everything suggests there is strong potential for major oil reservoirs in that region. The National Petroleum Agency estimates there could be around 30 billion barrels of oil there. That’s why we’re making such a major effort,” he said.

A ‘risk of accidents’

But critics have argued that the area where the Amazon River surges into the ocean comprises a delicate ecosystem, lush with mangroves and coral reefs.

There, the pink-bellied Guiana dolphin plies the salty waters alongside other aquatic mammals like sperm whales and manatees. Environmentalists fear exploratory drilling could further endanger these rare and threatened species.

Indigenous communities at the mouth of the river have also resisted Petrobras’s plans for oil exploration, citing the potential for damage to their ancestral fishing grounds.

In 2022, the Council of Chiefs of the Indigenous Peoples of Oiapoque (CCPIO) formally requested that the federal prosecutor’s office mediate a consultation process with Petrobras, which has not taken place to this date.

The federal prosecutor’s office, in announcing Thursday’s lawsuit, cited the risk to Indigenous peoples as part of its reasoning for seeking to delay the auction.

“The area is home to a vast number of traditional peoples and communities whose survival and way of life are directly tied to coastal ecosystems,” the office said.

However, in its statement to Al Jazeera, Petrobras maintains it had a “broad communication process” with local stakeholders. It added that its studies “did not identify any direct impact on traditional communities” resulting from the drilling.

But some experts nevertheless question the safety of oil exploration in the region, including Suely Araujo, who used to chair IBAMA from 2016 to 2018.

Now the public policy coordinator for the advocacy coalition Observatório do Clima, Araujo pointed to practical hurdles like the powerful waters that gush from the Amazon River into the ocean.

“The area is quite complex, with extremely strong currents. Petrobras has no previous exploration experience in a region with currents as strong as these,” Araujo said. “So it’s an area that increases the risk of accidents even during drilling.”

Still, she fears there is little political will within the Lula government to stop the oil exploration — and that awarding drilling licences could be a slippery slope.

“All the evidence is there for this licence to be approved soon,” she said, referring to the project planned near the river mouth.

“The problem is that if this licence gets approved — let’s say, the 47 new blocks in the Foz do Amazonas that are now up for auction — it will become very difficult for IBAMA to deny future licences, because it’s the same region.”

Oliveira, whose organisation is leading the legal fight against the exploration licences, echoed that sentiment. She said it is necessary to stop the drilling before it starts.

Israel appears to be expanding its air strikes on Iran’s capital, five days after it launched a surprise attack on its foe’s military and nuclear programme.

The attacks on Tuesday targeting Tehran, as well as locations Israel branded military bases in western Iran, came as United States President Donald Trump posted an ominous message warning residents of the capital to evacuate.

“Iran can not have a nuclear weapon,” Trump wrote on Monday as he returned to Washington early from a Group of Seven (G7) summit in Canada. “Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!”

Earlier, the Israeli military had called for some 330,000 residents of a neighbourhood in Tehran to evacuate.

Iran’s capital is one of the largest cities in the Middle East. Its population of about 10 million people is roughly equivalent to that of Israel. People have been fleeing since the hostilities began.

Israel says its sweeping assault on Iran’s top military leaders, nuclear scientists, uranium enrichment sites and ballistic missile programme is necessary to prevent its longtime adversary from getting any closer to building an atomic weapon. The strikes have killed at least 224 people since Friday.

Iran has retaliated by launching more than 370 missiles and hundreds of drones at Israel. So far, 24 people have been killed in Israel and more than 500 wounded.

On Monday, Israel ordered Iranians to evacuate from the northern part of the capital, Tehran, days after launching its deadly strikes across Iran. The same day, it bombed the headquarters of the state TV channel IRIB during a live broadcast.

Experts say these moves form part of Israel’s “psychological warfare” against Iranians, many of whom have already left the capital amid a continuing barrage of Israeli attacks, which have killed more than 220 people in five days.

Israeli spokesperson Avichay Adraee issued an “urgent warning” on X on Monday, calling for an evacuation order for District 3, a leafy, affluent area in northern Tehran where many foreign embassies are located.

It came attached with a 3D map and a warning to residents that their presence there “endangers” their lives; a format strikingly similar to his warnings issued throughout Israel’s war on Gaza and its bombardment of Lebanon.

Later, another evacuation order came from Israel’s closest ally, the United States. “Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!” US President Donald Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Monday.

But can a whole city – home to nearly 10 million people – simply pack up and leave? Let’s break it down for you:

How possible is it for all of Tehran’s residents to evacuate?

It would be difficult for all its residents to leave in a timeframe that would ensure their safety, according to Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Tehran, Maziar Motamedi.

One reason is that Iran’s capital has a large population of roughly 10 million, which is more people than in London or New York.

If you expand that area to the metropolitan area, which includes surrounding suburbs and towns, its population stands at approximately 14-15 million.

Heavy traffic congestion is already common in Tehran, especially during rush hour or public holidays, but many of the roads on Tuesday were at a standstill with traffic jams throughout the city as residents attempted to evacuate.

The traffic jams are reportedly worsening as the day progresses.

Tehran is also surrounded by mountainous terrain, and exit routes are limited to fewer than a dozen arteries that lead out of the city.

Al Jazeera’s Dorsa Jabbari spoke to some residents who had been attempting to leave Tehran, noting that a trip that usually takes seven to eight hours to reach an area by the Caspian Sea can now take between 18 and 24 hours to complete, due to traffic.

It takes weeks if not months to evacuate Tehran. pic.twitter.com/yiqM3ND6az

Are there any bomb shelters in Tehran?

No.

“There are no bomb shelters in Iran, there never have been, so people really don’t have anywhere to go”, Al Jazeera’s Jabbari explained.

“This was an unthinkable situation for most Iranians. They haven’t seen bombs dropping on Tehran since the Iran-Iraq War, and that ended 37 years ago,” she said.

A resident of the Zafaraniyeh neighbourhood in northern Tehran told Al Jazeera that officials had suggested that metro stations and some schools in the city could be prepared to accommodate people seeking shelter.

However, these structures were not designed to withstand the type of bombardment that Israel has been striking the capital with.

What is in District 3?

The area that the Israeli military has issued evacuation orders for is home to roughly 330,000 people and the sprawling headquarters of the Iranian state broadcaster IRIB, which Israel bombed on Monday after Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz said it was “on its way to disappear”.

It is also home to the busy Nelson Mandela Boulevard, which experiences regular traffic jams and is home to several foreign embassies.

The lush expanse of Mellat Park, the Enghelab Sports Complex with its popular outdoor swimming facilities, several hospitals and the sprawling Tehran International Exhibition Centre are also situated in the area.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has its Sarallah headquarters in the area, as do the police.

Al Jazeera’s Motamedi said several highways run through or along the periphery of the area marked in Israel’s evacuation orders, putting civilians using those roads at risk.

However, he said, wherever residents go, they have been at risk from the start with Israel’s bombs striking whenever and wherever they want.

Have many Tehran residents have already left?

Yes.

Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi, reporting from Tehran, said a significant portion of the population has chosen to leave the city in response to the explosions and repeated warning messages by Israel.

He said there is a strong sense of anxiety and fear among residents, but there is also a distinct feeling of solidarity among those who remain in the capital.

He said when he spoke to people, particularly those living in the neighbourhoods that were targeted, there was a deep sense of anger.

Residents say they have no connection to the nuclear programme or military facilities, and that they are just citizens whose lives are now being directly affected by these events, he reported from the capital.

Both of my parents fled Iran so this is personal. Trump’s words are callous and horrifying.

Tehran is a massive city of nearly 10 million. Iranian people deserve freedom but Trump’s threat of murdering innocent civilians, a mass casualty event, or another endless war is not the… pic.twitter.com/lQLBBYNaaR

Where can residents evacuate to?

Trump has made it sound simple, but relocating large numbers of people to other parts of the country is not straightforward.

Many residents have family elsewhere in the country or are opting to stay in hotels.

However, Israel has targeted locations across the country, which means there is no safe place to head to.

Motamedi said that many people may look to head north of Tehran to less-targeted areas such as Rasht, Nur, Chalus, Bandar Anzali and Mahmudabad.

These areas are popular with holidaymakers, meaning that hotels and temporary accommodation may be available.

Others say they fear that an influx of displaced people could lead to shortages in those areas, so they are uncertain of where they could evacuate to.

Have we seen these types of evacuation orders before?

Yes.

Since Israel began its war on Gaza in October 2023, it has issued numerous evacuation orders similar to the ones issued for District 3 on Monday.

It has also issued the same type of evacuation order when it strikes in locations in Lebanon.

Jabbari said that although these strategies are similar, Iran has an entirely different geography and is also a sovereign state, so it is a war “on a much larger scale”.

What Israel is using is something called the Dahiyeh Doctrine, which is a strategy developed in 2006 when it was at war with Hezbollah, she said.

This strategy is when Israel uses excessive force to destroy areas in densely populated civilian neighbourhoods, with the pretext that it is attacking military targets, Jabbari explained.

Israel’s goal, she said, was to instil fear and panic, and force people to abandon their support for their political leadership.