Fire at Iran’s largest oil refinery kills one in country’s southwest

A fire at Iran’s oldest and largest refinery in the southwest killed one person, state media reported Sunday (July 20, 2025).

A leaky pump in an under-repair unit at Abadan refinery caused the fire on Saturday (July 19, 2025), killing a worker, according to the state-owned IRNA newspaper. Firefighters put out the blaze in two hours, and operations remained unaffected, the report said.

Iran’s deputy parliament speaker, Ali Nikzad, confirmed Sunday (July 20, 2025) that some workers were also injured, media outlets said.

Abadan oil refinery, some 670 km from the capital Tehran, began its operation in 1912. It is the biggest in the Islamic Republic, producing about 25% of the country’s fuel with more than 5,200,000 barrels of oil refined daily.

Several fires have broken out across Iran over the past week at residential and commercial buildings, with authorities saying gas leaks and electrical short-circuiting were to blame.

Iran is one of the world’s major producers of oil, though sanctions by Western countries have limited its sales.