The Energy War

Week of March 23, 2026 | Issue No. 10

The strike landed on Nowruz.

As Iranians gathered on the evening of March 18 to mark the Persian New Year — the first new year of the war — Israeli aircraft hit the processing facilities at Asaluyeh in Bushehr Province, the onshore hub for South Pars, the world’s largest natural gas field. South Pars supplies seventy percent of Iran’s domestic gas consumption. The attack halted output at two refineries with a combined capacity of one hundred million cubic meters per day, accounting for an estimated twelve percent of Iran’s total gas production. Iran’s Ministry of Petroleum confirmed that facilities were “taken offline” to control fires. No casualties were immediately reported. Israeli military sources acknowledged the strike was deliberately targeted at Iran’s gas infrastructure. Trump wrote on Truth Social that the United States “knew nothing” about it in advance. One Israeli official told CNN that the strike was carried out in coordination with the U.S.