Iran put the entire Gulf energy system at risk on Wednesday after Israeli forces struck the South Pars gasfield, prompting the Revolutionary Guards to threaten sweeping strikes against energy infrastructure across Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar. Specific targets were named and immediate evacuation ordered. Oil prices surged toward $110 a barrel as the threat of a full-scale energy infrastructure war placed the Gulf’s energy system in its most vulnerable position yet.
South Pars, shared between Iran and Qatar, holds the world’s largest natural gas reserves and has been central to Iran’s energy economy throughout the conflict. The Israeli strike — reportedly with US authorization — was the first deliberate attack on Iranian fossil fuel production. Both Washington and Tel Aviv had previously avoided this move, but the decision to proceed was immediately met with Iran’s most sweeping and specific military declaration of the war.
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. All workers and residents were told to leave without delay. The Asaluyeh governor condemned the US-Israeli strike as “political suicide” and declared Iran was now in a full-scale economic war.
Brent crude rose nearly 5% to $108.60 per barrel. European gas benchmarks surged more than 7.5%. Gulf oil exports had already fallen 60% from pre-war levels due to infrastructure damage and Iran’s Strait of Hormuz blockade. Iran had maintained its own crude exports through the strait while blocking Gulf neighbors’ shipments. The threat of Iranian strikes on Gulf energy sites raised fears of a total collapse in regional export capacity and a catastrophic global supply disruption.
Qatar’s government spokesperson warned that targeting energy infrastructure was a direct threat to global energy security, the environment, and millions of regional residents. With the entire Gulf energy system now at risk, the conflict had reached a scale and intensity that could reshape the global energy order for years. The world waited, braced for what the coming hours might bring to the world’s most energy-critical region.