Iran threatened comprehensive strikes against Gulf energy infrastructure on Wednesday after Israeli forces hit the South Pars gasfield, with markets reacting sharply to the scope and specificity of the threat. The Revolutionary Guards named facilities across Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar as targets and ordered workers and residents to evacuate. Oil prices climbed toward $110 a barrel as traders priced in the risk of a sweeping energy infrastructure war.
South Pars, the world’s largest natural gas reserve, is shared between Iran and Qatar and central to Iran’s energy export revenues. The Israeli attack — reportedly with US consent — was the first time Iran’s fossil fuel production had been directly targeted. Both countries had previously held back from this step, but crossing it immediately triggered Iran’s most comprehensive and credible retaliatory threat of the conflict.
Iran’s state media 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 instructed to evacuate without delay. Asaluyeh governor Eskandar Pasalar called the US-Israeli strike “political suicide” and declared the conflict had entered a full-scale economic war phase with profound global implications.
Markets reacted decisively. Brent crude rose nearly 5% to $108.60 per barrel, while European gas prices jumped more than 7.5% to over €55.50 per megawatt hour. Gulf oil exports had already been slashed by 60% from pre-war levels due to sustained infrastructure attacks and Iran’s Strait of Hormuz blockade. Iran had maintained its own crude exports through the strait unimpeded while blocking Gulf neighbors’ shipments — a strategic asymmetry that had defined the conflict’s economic dimension throughout.
Qatar’s government spokesperson warned that attacking energy infrastructure was a threat to global energy security and regional welfare. The market reaction reflected the gravity of Iran’s comprehensive threat — one that placed the Gulf’s entire energy export system in jeopardy and raised the prospect of a supply disruption without modern parallel. The world was watching the Gulf’s energy sector with a level of anxiety not seen since the oil shocks of previous decades.
