Burning Oil Refineries
Spot News, second prize singles
1980
The Abadan refinery is located in Abadan near the coast of the Persian Gulf. Built by the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (later BP), it was completed in 1912 and was one of world's largest oil refineries. Its nationalisation in 1951 prompted the Abadan Crisis and ultimately the toppling of the democratically elected prime minister Mossaddegh.
The refinery was largely destroyed in September 1980 by Iraq during the initial stages of the Iraqi invasion of Iran's Khuzestan province, triggering the Iraq-Iran war. It had a capacity of 635,000 b/d in 1980 and formed a refinery complex with important petrochemical plants. Its capacity has been increased steadily since the war ended in 1988 and is now listed as 429,000 barrels per day (68,200Â m3/d) of crude oil.
Commissioned by: Sygma
Photo Credit: Henri Bureau
Henri Bureau born on 25th January, 1940 in Cognac joined the Navy for 3 years at the age of 18 after having a disastrous experience with formal schooling. It was at this time that he turn to hitchhiking which ultimately helped him find his first love.
He started his career at a small Parisian agency of Photography (APIS) with no prior knowledge of the profession. In awe of the Parisian night scene he persevered and he got just the reward when in August 1966, the head of one of the two most important agencies in Paris, the Reporters Associate hired him as an employee and sent him later to Vietnam for 10 days ultimately marking the beginning of his great reportage adventure.