Word: abadan
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...cockpit of superpower rivalry. "Whether it has been declared or not," said Iraqi Defense Minister Adnan Khairallah early on, "it is in fact war." The struggle escalated quickly and as it did, spread to key oil facilities on both sides-Basra, Kirkuk and Mosul in Iraq, Abadan and Kharg island in Iran. With thick black smoke pluming from bombed tank farms and refineries, petroleum-consuming nations around the globe anxiously calculated and then recalculated the implications. Said one U.S. official in tallying up the damage: "Once oil installations became fair game, the stakes became much higher for everyone...
...coals-to-Newcastle nature of the transaction but because the U.S. itself is expected to be short of heating oil this winter. But the Administration, in defending the sale, pointed out that Iran needed the oil quickly because of sabotage on pipelines near the big Iranian refinery at Abadan. The White House also argued that the sale could have important advantages for the U.S. in paving a new relationship with post-Shah Iran...
...hardly a ripple in Tehran, where the regime was preoccupied with more pressing matters. Hassan Nazih, head of the National Iranian Oil Co., decried the regime's tendency to "put all political, economic and judicial problems into an Islamic mold." In the port city of Khorramshahr and in Abadan, site of the world's biggest oil refinery, fighting broke out between ethnic Arabs, who want more autonomy from Tehran, and Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini's armed forces; at least 25 people were killed in running gun battles. Because he suffered from exhaustion, the state radio announced, Khomeini would...
Labor peace in Abadan and Ahvaz, another big oil city nearby, is also threatened by 28,000 unemployed "contract" workers. They are highly skilled electricians, welders and drilling-rig operators who had been employed by foreign firms. Work has halted while the foreign contracts are being "reassessed" by the government. These men were accustomed to wages of up to $6,000 a month under the Shah. Unable to find work, they eke out an existence on a $200 to $300 monthly dole from the government. They also congregate in the streets, where their demonstrations for jobs have triggered violent reactions...
...these frustrations are being exploited by Marxists. Leftist groups of various sorts are well organized in the oilfields, in the Abadan refinery and even among the well-paid, rather pampered workers at the port of Kharg Island, whose highly sophisticated pipeline network and oil flow control mechanism make it the most vulnerable element in the Iranian oil system...