Iran threatened to turn the Gulf’s enormous energy wealth into a war zone on Wednesday after Israeli forces attacked the South Pars gasfield — the world’s largest natural gas reserve. The Revolutionary Guards named specific facilities in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar as imminent targets and ordered immediate evacuation. Oil prices surged toward $110 a barrel as the threat transformed the Gulf’s energy sector from a source of global prosperity to a potential battlefield.
South Pars, shared between Iran and Qatar, has been the backbone of Iran’s energy economy for decades. The Israeli attack — reportedly conducted with US consent — was the first time Iran’s fossil fuel production had been directly targeted in the conflict. Both countries had carefully avoided this step, knowing that crossing it could provoke the precisely the kind of sweeping energy war now materializing.
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 facilities as targets. Workers and residents were told to evacuate without delay. Asaluyeh governor Eskandar Pasalar said the conflict had entered a “full-scale economic war” and called the US-Israeli escalation “political suicide.”
Brent crude climbed to $108.60 per barrel, while European gas prices jumped more than 7.5%. Gulf oil exports had already fallen 60% from pre-war volumes due to sustained infrastructure damage and Iran’s Strait of Hormuz blockade. Iran had maintained its own crude exports through the strait unimpeded while blocking Gulf neighbors’ shipments — an asymmetry that had given it a powerful economic weapon throughout the conflict.
Qatar’s government spokesperson Majid al-Ansari warned that attacking energy infrastructure was a grave threat to global energy security and regional populations. The prospect of the Gulf’s energy wealth being turned into a war zone was one the world’s energy markets had long feared — and one that now appeared to be materializing. With specific targets named, evacuation orders issued, and Iran’s clock running, the threat was as real as it had ever been.