Iran vowed to respond swiftly to Israeli missiles that struck the South Pars gasfield on Wednesday, threatening to hit energy installations across Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar within hours. The Revolutionary Guards named specific facilities and ordered mass evacuations in what was described by Iranian officials as the opening of a full-scale economic war. Oil markets responded immediately, pushing toward $110 a barrel.
The South Pars field is the world’s largest natural gas reserve and is shared between Iran and Qatar. Israel’s strike — with reported US authorization — was unprecedented in its direct targeting of Iran’s fossil fuel production. The US and Israel had until this moment deliberately avoided hitting Iranian energy assets, concerned that doing so would set off a chain reaction capable of destabilizing global oil and gas markets.
Iran’s state media released a list of threatened targets: Saudi Arabia’s Samref refinery and Jubail complex, the UAE’s al-Hosn gasfield, and Qatar’s Mesaieed and Ras Laffan facilities. Workers and residents were told to evacuate without delay. Iran’s Asaluyeh governor condemned the Israeli strike as “political suicide” and said the pendulum of war had swung into the economic domain.
Brent crude climbed to $108.60 a barrel, while European gas prices jumped more than 7.5%. Gulf oil exports had already fallen 60% from pre-war levels due to sustained attacks and Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s own crude had continued to flow through the strait uninterrupted, even as it choked off its neighbors’ exports. A successful Iranian strike on Gulf energy facilities would worsen an already dire supply shortage.
Qatar’s government described the targeting of energy infrastructure as a threat to global energy security and called for restraint. The statement reflected the anxiety felt across Gulf capitals at Iran’s specific and time-bound threats. As the deadline for potential strikes loomed, the conflict had taken on a new and deeply unsettling economic dimension — one with the potential to reshape energy markets for years to come.