Tehran—A 5.9 magnitude earthquake in southern Iran partially has damaged a critical oil facility and disrupted production, state television reported April 18.
The temblor caused a ceiling to collapse at the Goureh pump station and a turbine to go out of service, Houshang Seidali, managing director of Gachsaran Oil and Gas Co., was quoted as saying. The outage has halted some crude production, though he did not provide any details.Workers were on the scene to try and restore operations, he added.
Gachsaran Oil and Gas Co. produces more than 600,000 b/d of crude and more than 1 Bcf/d of gas, officials said in 2019.
The company has operations in oil fields covering four provinces: Bushehr, Fars, Khuzestan and Kohgilouyeh-Boyrahamd. It also operates the Goureh pump station and oil export facilities.
Some 80% of Iran's oil exports pipes through Goureh pump station with nine turbines that prepare the incoming crude for refining and exporting.
Iran as a whole pumped 2.30 million b/d of crude, according to the latest S&P Global Platts survey of OPEC production.
The earthquake, which struck at 11 am local time (0641 GMT) was felt at the Kharg oil terminal, the country's main crude export port on the Persian Gulf.
"No damage has been inflicted on facilities of this company and activities are done normally," Abbas Asadrouz, managing director of Iranian Oil Terminals Co., was quoted as saying by Iran's oil ministry news service Shana.
Local petrochemical plants were also unaffected by the quake, Shana reported.
HSE director at National Petrochemical Company Davoud Emadi said the local petrochemical plants have been safe from the jolt, oil ministry news service Shana reported.
"Feedstock supply is steady and plants are operating and producing normally," said Davoud Emadi, a director at Iran's National Petrochemical Co.
Gachsaran has 16 active reservoirs including Ghachsaran, Bibihakimeh, Rag Sefid 2 as well as Binak, Golkhari, Nargesi, Chalingar, Pazanan 2, Mansourabad, Garangan, Soulabdar, Chaharbisheh, Roudak, Kilourkari and Khaviz.
The earthquake hit the towns of Ganaveh and Deylam at the border of the two southern provinces of Bushehr and Fars. There were no fatalities reported, but five people were slightly injured, buildings and houses were damaged, and power and telephone lines were cut.
