Iran took the Gulf energy war to a new level on Wednesday after Israeli forces struck the South Pars gasfield — the world’s largest natural gas reserve — and the Revolutionary Guards threatened sweeping strikes against Gulf energy infrastructure. Specific facilities in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar were named and workers ordered to evacuate. Oil prices surged toward $110 a barrel as the energy war reached a level of intensity and specificity it had never previously achieved.
South Pars, shared between Iran and Qatar, has been the foundation of Iran’s gas economy throughout the conflict. The Israeli strike — reportedly with US backing — was the first direct attack on Iranian fossil fuel production. Washington and Tel Aviv had previously maintained this as an implicit red line, but crossing it immediately triggered the most specific and credible military threat Iran had issued in the entire 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 installations as targets for strikes in the coming hours. All workers and residents were instructed to evacuate without delay. Governor Eskandar Pasalar of Asaluyeh condemned the US-Israeli strike as “political suicide” and declared the conflict had entered a full-scale economic war.
Brent crude climbed to $108.60 per barrel — a nearly 5% gain — while European gas prices surged more than 7.5% to above €55.50 per megawatt hour. Gulf oil exports had already been reduced by 60% from pre-war volumes due to sustained infrastructure damage and Iran’s Strait of Hormuz blockade. Iran had continued to export its own crude through the strait unimpeded while blocking Gulf neighbors from doing so — an imbalance that gave Tehran a powerful economic weapon throughout the conflict.
Qatar’s government spokesperson warned that attacking energy infrastructure endangered global energy security and the welfare of millions. The new level Iran had taken the energy war to was one from which retreat would be difficult — a level characterized by named targets, evacuation orders, and a tight window for action. The world’s energy markets had reached their most dangerous moment of the conflict, and the coming hours would determine how the new level would be defined.
