Iranian authorities blame terrorist attacks for gas pipeline explosion
An explosion early yesterday ruptured a gas pipeline near Borujen city, in Iran’s south-western Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province.
Images on social media showed an inferno lighting up the night sky.
Iran’s Gas Management Centre said the blast was caused by “terrorist attacks”, state-linked Irna reported.
The Mehr news agency said authorities were still investigating the cause of the explosion in the “high-pressure” pipeline, but no casualties were reported after the incident.
Ismail Yazdani, head of emergency services in Borujen, said the explosion ruptured the country’s main gas transmission line.
Iran produces about a billion cubic metres of gas a day and has some of the largest proven reserves in the world, at about 30 trillion cubic metres, as well as a large network of pipelines also used to export gas to Iraq and Turkey.
A branch of the Iran Gas Trunk line runs near the site of the explosion, but the authorities did not say whether it was damaged.
Industrial accidents in Iran are common, with decades of international sanctions and mismanagement having left much of the country’s infrastructure in a state of disrepair.
Israel has been accused by Tehran of carrying out a covert campaign of sabotage that has destroyed or damaged factories and military installations in Iran, particularly those linked to weapons development projects and the country’s nuclear programme.
While ruptures of gas pipelines in Iran are not unusual, with subsidence, earthquakes and accidents during maintenance often the cause, there has been past evidence of sabotage. In 2011, four gas pipelines in Qom province exploded simultaneously.
Iran often releases statements blaming Israeli intelligence services for such incidents, but the regime also faces domestic threats, from Baloch separatists and ISIS in the south and centre of the country, as well as Kurdish groups in the north, who have also carried out attacks on pipelines.
In 2014, two men from the oil-rich south-western province of Khuzestan were executed after being accused of a gas pipeline attack.
Tehran said the men were separatists, but local authorities said the pipeline rupture was an accident.
There are no known insurgent groups operating in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari.