I took over as caretaker oil minister a week ago, after the resignation of my dear brother, Mohsen Paknejad, and with the trust of the president. My first domestic trip in this role took me to Bushehr province and Asaluyeh, where I toured facilities under reconstruction.

Since the revolution, Asaluyeh and the surrounding area have become a lasting name in Iran's development and the beating heart of its energy sector. More than a quarter-century of work and investment there now brings natural gas and petrochemical products within easy reach of millions of Iranian households and industrial users. The effect on daily life across the country is undeniable.

I believe that impact is why the region was targeted in both of the recent imposed wars. Attacks on energy facilities in Kangan, Asaluyeh and Mahshahr were attacks on symbols of postrevolution development, built by Iranian hands and with Iranian will. The strikes on Asaluyeh's gas refineries had one aim: to disrupt the daily lives of Iranian citizens.

What the United States and Israel failed to calculate, and will go on failing to see, is the unbroken Iranian will to build the homeland.

That will has delivered results. With the government focused on repairing war damage, under the determined direction of President Masoud Pezeshkian and through the sacrifice of oil industry employees and Iranian contractors, 100 million cubic meters of lost gas production capacity has been restored in just six months. Four gas refineries attacked in Asaluyeh have seen remarkable reconstruction progress. Work in both gas and petrochemicals has exceeded the usual planning forecasts.

At the same time, the major annual overhauls of refineries and offshore platforms have stayed on schedule. Strategic plans are in place for several scenarios for managing the country's energy supply during the cold season.

I have spent nearly 35 years in Iran's oil industry. I am convinced that no management plan or method alone could have produced the results of this intense and demanding period of reconstruction, restoration and repair. It took a steel-like national will.

The oil industry is the only part of Iran's economy that rests on a philosophical belief deeply held in the public mind, and that draws strength from a patriotic movement, the nationalization of oil. The old passion for building the industry with Iranian hands still runs through the veins of new generations.

That patriotic fervor must now be matched by a culture of efficient use. Iran needs a broad habit, and an expectation, of conserving energy in the cold season. Only then can the drive to rebuild damaged facilities be completed by sound consumption and continued independence from imported energy.

Today, I salute the workers and engineers at Asaluyeh. They worked through the most dangerous days of the Ramadan war and the harsh heat of summer, on production platforms and in operational zones, for days on end and far from home. They did not stop building for a moment, so that Iran would not bow.

My visit was also meant to inspect projects and facilities under repair. But it was a tribute, too: to Iran's armed forces, to the people who stood behind the effort, and to the millions of devoted citizens whose commitment made it possible to build Asaluyeh and to rebuild it. I believe the oil industry has emerged from this test of resistance with its head high, backed by the will of the people. Asaluyeh is a pillar of the industry's future. It is a tree that grew from Iranian soil by Iranian will and bore fruit for a nation. We will see further rebirths of this symbol of the industry's dignity.

In a recent message marking Sacred Defense Week, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said of Iran's enemies: "Those former days that our enemy dreams of returning to are gone and will never come again." Oil industry workers, I believe, grasp the weight of those words better than most Iranians, because they acted on the same conviction. They carried out the fastest reconstruction effort in the history of Iran's oil industry.

Fortified by that outlook, the industry and its workforce have come through this test of resilience with their heads high. They remain on the front line of resistance, defense and reconstruction, ready to give everything for Iran.

By Hamid Bovard, caretaker oil minister

This article first appeared in the Persian newspaper Iran.