Already at the initial stage of the war, Iran attempted to cut off Iraq's sources of income. In November 1980, Iranian special forces, supported by naval and air forces, attacked the Iraqi oil terminals Mina al-Bakr and Al-Faw. In parallel with direct military action, Tehran used diplomatic levers, persuading Syria to close the Iraqi pipeline passing through its territory, effectively depriving Baghdad of access to Mediterranean markets. Later, in March 1984, Iranian forces advanced in the south, capturing part of the oil-rich Majnoon Islands. The culmination of Iran's strategy was the capture of the peninsula and the abandoned oil port of Al-Faw in February 1986 as a result of a successful amphibious operation across the Shatt al-Arab River. Even in the north, Iran tried to threaten Iraqi oil production: in 1987, Iranian units together with Kurdish rebels surrounded the garrison in Mawat, putting at risk the Kirkuk oil fields and the pipeline to Turkey.

Iraq, in turn, relied on long-range bombing and disruption of enemy maritime transport. Starting in 1981, Baghdad attacked Iranian ports and oil complexes, as well as neutral tankers heading to Iran. The main target of the Iraqi Air Force throughout the war remained Iran's main export terminal on Kharg Island, through which the bulk of Iran's oil flows passed. Over the years of the war, more than 9,000 bomb strikes were carried out on the island, which almost completely destroyed its original capacity, although Iraq was never able to completely disable the terminal. Overall, the struggle for oil through the capture of fields, destruction of processing and export facilities, and attacks on tankers became a cornerstone of the strategy of both sides throughout the eight-year war.

However, mutual strikes on oil refining infrastructure did not prevent Iran from placing on two stamps issued in 1986 and 1989 the story of the destruction and restoration of the oil refinery in the city of Abadan in southwestern Iran.