The energy confrontation between Iran and Israel escalated dramatically on Wednesday when an Israeli strike on the South Pars gasfield triggered sweeping threats from Tehran against Gulf energy infrastructure. The Revolutionary Guards named specific facilities in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar as targets for imminent strikes and ordered evacuation. Oil prices surged toward $110 a barrel as the confrontation entered its most dangerous economic dimension.
The South Pars gasfield, the world’s largest natural gas reserve shared between Iran and Qatar, had been kept out of the conflict until Wednesday. The Israeli decision to strike it — reportedly with US authorization — broke a critical constraint and immediately provoked Iran’s most detailed and threatening retaliatory declaration of the war. Both countries had previously maintained this restraint, but the decision to end it had been taken and the consequences were immediate.
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 personnel were urged to evacuate without delay. The governor of Asaluyeh condemned the US-Israeli strike as “political suicide” and declared the conflict had entered a full-scale economic war that neither side would be able to contain easily.
Brent crude rose nearly 5% to $108.60 a barrel, while European gas benchmarks surged more than 7.5%. Gulf oil exports had already fallen 60% from pre-war levels, battered by infrastructure damage and Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. Iran had continued to ship its own crude through the strait unimpeded, while Gulf neighbors struggled to export anything. The threat of Iranian strikes on Gulf energy facilities added fresh and alarming pressure to an already severely disrupted global supply.
Qatar’s government spokesperson warned that targeting energy infrastructure threatened global energy security and the welfare of regional populations. The energy confrontation had reached a level of intensity that neither diplomacy nor military deterrence appeared capable of containing in the short term. With Iran’s clock running on its threatened strikes, the world braced for what could be the most destructive phase of the Gulf energy war yet.