Iran shook the Gulf energy order to its foundations on Wednesday after Israeli forces hit the South Pars gasfield, threatening specific strikes against energy infrastructure in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar. The Revolutionary Guards named exact targets and ordered immediate evacuation. Oil prices surged toward $110 a barrel as the threat to shake the Gulf energy order further sent global markets into turmoil.
South Pars, the world’s largest natural gas reserve, is shared between Iran and Qatar. The Israeli attack — reportedly with US authorization — was the first direct strike on Iranian fossil fuel production in the conflict. Both countries had previously avoided this step, but crossing this line triggered Iran’s most operationally specific and threatening military declaration of the entire conflict.
Named targets in Iran’s state media included Saudi Arabia’s Samref refinery and Jubail complex, the UAE’s al-Hosn gasfield, and Qatar’s Mesaieed and Ras Laffan facilities. All personnel were told to evacuate without delay. Iran’s Asaluyeh governor called the US-Israeli attack “political suicide” and declared the war had entered a full-scale economic phase that would reshape the Gulf energy order for years.
Brent crude climbed 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 fallen 60% from pre-war volumes due to infrastructure damage and Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. Iran had maintained its own crude exports through the strait unimpeded while blocking Gulf neighbors from doing so — an asymmetry that had given it significant leverage throughout the conflict and threatened to be exploited further.
Qatar’s government spokesperson warned that targeting energy infrastructure was a direct threat to global energy security and the welfare of millions. The Gulf energy order that had provided stability and supply to the global economy for decades was now being shaken by a conflict that had moved from military to economic warfare. With specific strikes threatened and Iran’s clock running, the order that the world had relied on was in its most precarious state in modern history.