Oil surged toward $110 a barrel Wednesday as Iran threatened sweeping strikes against Gulf energy infrastructure following an Israeli attack on the South Pars gasfield — the world’s largest natural gas reserve. The Revolutionary Guards named specific facilities in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar and ordered immediate evacuations. The crisis represented the most acute threat to Gulf energy infrastructure seen in the conflict.
South Pars, co-managed between Iran and Qatar, is central to Iran’s gas export revenues and domestic energy supply. The Israeli strike on the field — reportedly with US backing — was the first direct attack on Iran’s fossil fuel production. Both countries had previously avoided this step, concerned that targeting Iranian energy infrastructure would trigger the precisely the kind of sweeping retaliation now unfolding.
Iran’s state broadcaster named Saudi Arabia’s Samref refinery and Jubail complex, the UAE’s al-Hosn gasfield, and Qatar’s Mesaieed and Ras Laffan facilities as targets for imminent strikes. Evacuation orders were issued publicly and with urgency. Asaluyeh governor Eskandar Pasalar said the conflict had entered a full-scale economic war and called the US-Israeli decision to strike South Pars “political suicide.”
The global oil benchmark climbed to $108.60 a barrel, approaching $110 for the first time in years. European gas markets jumped more than 7.5% to over €55.50 per megawatt hour. Gulf oil exports had already fallen 60% from pre-war levels due to infrastructure damage and Iran’s Strait of Hormuz blockade. Iran had continued to ship its own crude through the strait unimpeded while preventing its Gulf neighbors from doing so — a strategic advantage it had maintained throughout the conflict.
Qatar’s government spokesperson Majid al-Ansari warned that attacking energy infrastructure endangered global energy security. From oil refineries in Saudi Arabia to gas facilities in Qatar, the Gulf’s energy heartland was now firmly in the crosshairs of a conflict that had crossed every previous boundary. With evacuation orders in place and Iran’s clock running, the world awaited the next and potentially most destructive chapter of the Gulf energy war.