The Wall Street Journal reported that President Donald Trump’s administration wants to invest $5 billion in a new fund to help rebuild energy sites in the Middle East that were destroyed or damaged in the Iran War.
From the report:
Under Trump’s plan, the U.S. would seek a matching contribution from eight Middle Eastern partners—Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Iraq and Jordan—with the goal of generating a $10 billion investment fund. The investment would be called the Partnership for Allied Trust and Construction, or Pact.
Discussions on the fund are under way, and the terms of the arrangement could change, U.S. officials said. It is unclear when, or even if, other countries will sign on.
Some Middle East officials said the initiative appeared to be Washington’s attempt to cast the Strait of Hormuz as a less consequential energy route and show the U.S. and its allies as united in confronting Iran. They added that creating a fund to rebuild destroyed energy sites without a peace deal with Tehran would be premature, as the regime could target fresh infrastructure with drones and missiles.
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Under the U.S. proposal, the fund would be managed by the Development Finance Corporation, a federal agency that works with the private sector to support U.S. national-security policy. Its programs historically have targeted projects in developing countries, not wealthy Gulf monarchies.
Energy Now listed the oil refineries, gas facilities, oil fields, nuclear plants, and ports attacked during the war, which started in February.
Here are the oil refineries:
- Ruwais, UAE: One of the biggest refineries in the world was shut as a precautionary measure after a drone strike caused a fire in the industrial area where it’s located.
- Ras Tanura, Saudi Arabia: Saudi Aramco temporarily halted operations at the kingdom’s largest crude processing plant — with 550,000 barrels a day of capacity — after a drone attack in the first few days of the war. The facility has since been restarted.
- Samref, Saudi Arabia: A drone fell on refinery that’s half owned by Exxon Mobil Corp.
- Bapco Energies, Bahrain: The 400,000 barrel-a-day plant was damaged in an attack and declared force majeure on operations that had been impacted.
- Mina Al-Ahmadi, Kuwait: The refinery suffered another attack Friday that shut down some units, a day after the facility was targeted in a wave of strikes.
- Mina Abdullah, Kuwait: A fire at the plant was extinguished following a March 19 attack. One of the country’s two refineries was already shut in, after Kuwait’s oil output was cut by at least half.
- Lanaz, Iraq: Operations were suspended at the plant in the northern city of Erbil after a fire caused by a drone strike, Reuters reported, citing unidentified provincial officials.
In April, Rystad Energy estimated that the war damaged at least $58 billion of energy infrastructure in two months.
I have not found a recent damage estimate.
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