Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported that “a fire at the Kaveh Petrochemical Complex in Bandar Dayyer, Bushehr Province, left three dead and ten injured.” Hassan Mousavi, head of prehospital emergency care for the province, said the incident was sparked by “a fire at a methanol storage tank.”
“The number of casualties may rise due to the severity of the fire,” Mousavi added.
The semi-official Tasnim News Agency, affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), cited Mojtaba Khaledi, the spokesperson for the Iranian Red Crescent, as stating that “the incident occurred at around 11:05 a.m. [local time] on Wednesday.” He confirmed that “three people were killed” and noted that “two more people are still trapped on the ship,” carrying the methanol tank.
Tasnim also quoted Kourosh Dehghan, director general of crisis management for Bushehr Province, who stated that the explosion was caused by welding operations on the ship.
Petro Kaveh Industrial Group’s methanol complex in Bushehr is among the world’s largest single-train methanol facilities, producing 7,000 tons of methanol per day.
Bushehr Province, situated along the Persian Gulf, is a key economic region for Iran. It hosts major ports, lies close to the South Pars gas field - the world’s largest natural gas reserve - and includes the Pars Special Economic Energy Zone. The province is central to Iran’s petrochemical production and energy exports, making it vital to Iran’s national energy security.
Wednesday’s deadly incident follows a massive explosion two months earlier at the Shahid Rajaee port in Bandar Abbas, located in Iran’s southern Hormozgan Province, where nearly 60 people were killed and around 1,000 injured.
The port, a major commercial hub for Iran, processes approximately 70 million tons of goods annually and sits along the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a passageway for nearly one-fifth of global oil output.
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