Iran threatened to plunge the Gulf into energy chaos on Wednesday after Israeli forces struck the South Pars gasfield — the world’s largest natural gas reserve — for the first time in the conflict. The Revolutionary Guards named specific facilities in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar as targets for imminent strikes and ordered all workers to evacuate. Oil prices surged toward $110 a barrel as the threat of sweeping energy infrastructure attacks became critically real.
South Pars is shared between Iran and Qatar and has been the backbone of Iran’s gas export revenues throughout the conflict. The Israeli strike — reportedly with US authorization — was unprecedented in its direct targeting of Iranian fossil fuel production. Washington and Tel Aviv had previously avoided this step, understanding the severe global consequences of crossing this threshold. Those consequences were now materializing in real time.
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 imminent targets. All personnel were told to evacuate without delay. The governor of Asaluyeh province said the US-Israeli strike was “political suicide” and declared the war had entered a full-scale economic phase.
Brent crude climbed to $108.60 per barrel — close to $110 — while European gas benchmarks surged more than 7.5%. Gulf oil exports had already been reduced by 60% from pre-war volumes due to infrastructure attacks and Iran’s stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz. Iran had maintained its own crude exports through the strait while blocking Gulf neighbors’ shipments, a strategic asymmetry that had given it significant economic leverage throughout the conflict.
Qatar’s government spokesperson warned that targeting energy infrastructure posed a grave threat to global energy security and the welfare of millions. The prospect of Iran plunging the Gulf into energy chaos was no longer a theoretical worst-case scenario — it was a stated and time-bound military intention, backed by specific targets and evacuation orders. The world’s energy markets and the governments that depended on them had never faced a moment of greater uncertainty.