Iran turned the Gulf into an energy battleground on Wednesday after Israeli forces struck the South Pars gasfield, prompting the Revolutionary Guards to threaten facilities in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar. Specific targets were named and evacuation orders issued. Oil prices climbed toward $110 a barrel as the conflict’s energy dimension reached its most dangerous and consequential point yet.
South Pars, the world’s largest natural gas reserve, is shared between Iran and Qatar and has been a central pillar of Iran’s economy throughout the war. The Israeli strike on the field — reportedly with US backing — was the first time Iran’s fossil fuel sector had been directly targeted. The decision ended months of deliberate restraint and immediately provoked the sweeping retaliatory threat that energy analysts and policymakers had long feared.
Iran’s state media identified Saudi Arabia’s Samref refinery and Jubail complex, the UAE’s al-Hosn gasfield, and Qatar’s Mesaieed and Ras Laffan facilities as imminent targets. Workers and residents were instructed to evacuate without delay. Asaluyeh governor Eskandar Pasalar declared the conflict had entered a full-scale economic war and called the US-Israeli escalation an act of “political suicide.”
Brent crude climbed to $108.60 per barrel — a nearly 5% gain — while European gas prices surged more than 7.5% to over €55.50 per megawatt hour. Gulf oil exports had already been cut by 60% from pre-war volumes, the result of sustained infrastructure attacks and Iran’s Strait of Hormuz blockade. Earlier in the conflict’s third week, Iranian forces had also struck the UAE’s Shah gasfield, Iraqi oilfield Majnoon, and the UAE’s Fujairah port facility.
Qatar’s government spokesperson Majid al-Ansari warned that attacking energy infrastructure constituted a serious threat to global energy security and the welfare of regional populations. The conflict had now explicitly encompassed the Gulf’s energy backbone, placing in jeopardy the supply chains that underpin much of the world economy. With Iran’s clock running, the coming hours were poised to be among the most consequential the global energy market had ever witnessed.