UAE Gas Field Set Ablaze as Iran Strikes Hit Energy Supplies
(Bloomberg) -- Iran stepped up attacks on energy infrastructure around the Persian Gulf and set a massive gas field ablaze, adding more pressure to an increasingly fraught global fuel supply situation.
Operations were suspended at the Shah natural gas field in the United Arab Emirates while officials assessed damage from a fire touched off by a drone attack on Monday. An Iraqi oil field and key Emirati port were also targeted by Iranian drones and missiles as the war enters its third week.
The attacks by Tehran are intensifying just as energy consumers from India to Australia and Japan are feeling pinched by fuel shortages. Even the tech world is vulnerable, with the global semiconductor industry facing supply chain disruptions and fears of a spike in the cost of power in key manufacturing hub Taiwan.
Abu Dhabi authorities brought the blaze under control at the high-sulfur Shah gas field in the Empty Quarter desert west of Abu Dhabi, according to the media office for UAE’s capital. No injuries were reported.
The attack on Shah came a year after US Energy Secretary Chris Wright visited the field as part of his trip to the region. It’s operated by a joint venture of Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. and Occidental Petroleum Corp. Texas-based Occidental deferred to Adnoc, as the UAE energy giant is known, for any comments.
The Shah gas plant has the capacity to produce 1.28 billion standard cubic feet of gas per day, about a fifth of the country’s total, and 4.2 million tons of sulfur per year, around 5% of global supply, according to Adnoc’s website and Energy Institute data.
Meanwhile, the Majnoon oil field in southern Iraq was targeted by an attack, according to an Iraq Oil Ministry spokesperson statement that didn’t provide any additional details.
Fujairah, a key Emirati port, resumed some operations after a drone triggered a blaze during the weekend. The major hub for both crude and fuels has taken on increased significance for both the UAE and global markets because of its position outside the Strait of Hormuz, which has been all-but-closed because of the war.
The UAE also halted production at its Ruwais oil refinery last week as a precautionary measure after a drone strike caused a fire in the industrial area in which it’s located.
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