Was it worth it, Donald? According to Iran, 80 percent of its oil storage facilities have already been restored

According to a statement by Iran, around 80 percent of the oil storage capacity damaged in the forty-day war with the United States and Israel has already been restored. This was stated to the Fars news agency by Mohammad Meskinfam, CEO of Iran's oil industry engineering and construction company, so the claim should be treated with some caution, but it is hardly likely that the Iranians have simply sat idle in recent months. According to Meskinfam, reconstruction of the facilities used for transferring and distributing petroleum products is 60 percent complete, and the entire project is to be finished by the end of Aban, the eighth month of the Iranian calendar, i.e. roughly by November 21. The figures have not so far been confirmed by independent sources, and the Iranian side has not released absolute numbers on how much storage capacity was destroyed or damaged.

The war began on February 28, when the United States and Israel launched airstrikes against Iran. According to an April report by the Turkish news agency Anadolu, the bombing had by then claimed more than three thousand lives. In response, Tehran struck Israel as well as targets in Iraq, Jordan and Gulf states hosting American military bases. The fighting ended with a two-week ceasefire at the beginning of April, but the U.S.–Iran talks held in Islamabad, which concluded on April 12, ended without an agreement after 21 hours of negotiations. According to Meskinfam, the strikes hit, among other places, the Rey oil depot south of Tehran and other storage facilities in Tehran Province. Fuel supply in the capital was disrupted for about two weeks, but according to the director, it has since stabilized and now exceeds pre-war levels.

According to Meskinfam, reconstruction began during the war itself; the contractor was selected and deployed to the site within three days under wartime conditions. The work consists of two parts: the restoration of facilities for transferring and distributing petroleum products, and the construction of new storage tanks along with further infrastructure investments. The director said that in about two months — including during the war and the Persian New Year, Nowruz, celebrations — a total of 60,000 inches of welding was carried out. The greatest difficulty was that the work began without a finished technical plan: design and construction proceeded in parallel, with exact technical parameters and the scope of tasks determined as the work progressed.

Iran's leadership had already promised a rapid reconstruction by the end of the war. Deputy Oil Minister Mohammad Sadegh Azimifar said in April that contractors had been mobilized the day after the strikes, and that the goal was to restore 70–80 percent of the damaged refining and distribution capacity within one to two months. Cleanup of the debris has also begun at the refinery on Lavan Island in the Persian Gulf. However, Tehran's statements point to a slower pace than expected, since the 80 percent figure cited for November refers to storage capacity, while the distribution network is still only at 60 percent. At the same time, there is independent evidence of rapid reconstruction: in July, the Wall Street Journal reported, based on satellite images from Planet Labs and Airbus, that Iran had repaired missile bases near Kangavar, Dezful and Kermanshah, as well as a bombed bridge, within days or weeks. However, the shipyard on the Caspian Sea linked to the Revolutionary Guard has only been partially rebuilt.

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