Revelation of Oil Theft from Under a Refinery Pipeline in Iran 'Over Several Years'

Malek Shariati, a member of the Energy Commission of the Parliament, revealed on a television program on Tuesday, November 8, that oil was stolen directly from under the pipeline of a refinery in Iran. He did not mention the name of this refinery or the exact duration of the theft. According to Mr. Shariati, the officials of this refinery were unaware for 'several years' that a branch had been taken from the oil pipeline and oil was being stolen from there. Mr. Shariati criticized the lack of adequate supervision, asking, 'Why has no one who is supposed to monitor the pipeline from start to finish noticed this issue?' He emphasized that a thorough examination of the refinery's inputs could have easily prevented this theft. This parliament member considered the cost of this theft to be 'from the people's pockets' and added that ultimately this theft was discovered by law enforcement forces. The main motivation for thieves targeting oil, diesel, and gasoline pipelines in Iran has been described as the 'price discrepancy between domestic and regional petroleum products.' The significant increase in oil theft in Iran is not a new issue. Last year, Arsalan Rahimi, CEO of the Iranian Oil Pipeline and Telecommunications Company, reported a 'dozens of times increase' in theft due to rising energy prices. In April 2021, the head of Tehran's police prevention announced that two brothers, intending to steal, had purchased a piece of land around a gasoline pipeline near Tehran, but ultimately lost their lives due to a gasoline leak from a well they had dug. In March 2023, the Islamic Republic's state television broadcast images of a professional team that had infiltrated the Tehran oil refinery by digging a tunnel over two years. This report claimed that the thieves had tapped into the main output pipeline of the Tehran oil refinery and started stealing petroleum products. In response to this report, the Tehran refinery claimed that all its facilities were installed above ground and that this company does not have underground oil pipelines. The theft of five kilometers of unused oil pipeline at the border of Bushehr province is another example of damage to Iran's oil equipment and products. A local police official, after arresting the perpetrators of this theft, stated, 'The value of the stolen pipes was reported to be 17 billion tomans, but it seems their value is much higher than this amount.'