Iran is finally reporting on a major fire and explosion that took place yesterday at its Isfahan refinery, the second largest in the country.
According to the official account,a malfunction at the refinery caused a leakage of cooling water from its generators, causing a power outage and blackout.One pereson was reported killed.
The official story is that there was no explosion, and that fires were caused by workers burning off excess oil and gas in pipelines to prevent one from happening. However, Iranian dissidents reported a loud explosion at the refinery, and the fact that one person was killed would seem to support that.Various eye-witnesses reported seeing flames and thick smoke covering the area.
There was a major power outage as a result according to the Iranian Mehr news agency.
One of the Iranian regime's weak points is its refinery capacity. Major damage to a refinery like the one at Isfahan is going to have an impact not only in terms of capacity but in terms of the amount of refined fuel the regime is going to have to import, for which it has to pay in hard currency.
This isn't going to do the rial any good..it's dropped from an official rate of $1,300 hundred to the dollar to $1,500 to the dollar in a matter of weeks, and refined fuels trades are conducted in dollars.
Another reliable source of mine reported a major explosion at a Revolutionary Guards base in Kerman,the headquarters for the Guard’s operations in the East, near the Afghan border. No details yet,but I'm told it was quite a large blast.Probably just a coincidence, no?
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