Iran’s military threat against Gulf energy infrastructure grew more specific and credible than ever on Wednesday after Israeli forces hit the South Pars gasfield — the world’s largest natural gas reserve. The Revolutionary Guards named individual facilities in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar as imminent targets and issued evacuation orders. Oil prices surged toward $110 a barrel as the unprecedented specificity of the threat alarmed markets and governments worldwide.
South Pars, jointly operated between Iran and Qatar, is fundamental to Iran’s energy economy. The Israeli hit on the field — reportedly with US authorization — was the first time Iran’s fossil fuel sector had been directly targeted in the conflict. Both countries had previously maintained restraint around Iranian energy assets, but the decision to abandon that restraint triggered Iran’s most detailed and credible military threat of the war.
Iran’s state broadcaster named the Samref refinery and Jubail complex in Saudi Arabia, al-Hosn gasfield in the UAE, and Mesaieed and Ras Laffan in Qatar as targets. All workers and residents were told to leave without delay. The governor of Asaluyeh province called the US-Israeli attack “political suicide” and said the conflict had moved into a full-scale economic war phase with consequences for global energy supply.
Oil prices rose to $108.60 per barrel — a nearly 5% gain — while European gas benchmarks climbed more than 7.5%. Gulf oil exports had already been cut by 60% from pre-war volumes due to sustained infrastructure damage and Iran’s Strait of Hormuz blockade. Iran had continued to ship its own crude through the strait unimpeded while blocking Gulf neighbors from doing so — a strategic weapon that had given it significant leverage throughout the conflict.
Qatar’s government spokesperson Majid al-Ansari warned that targeting energy infrastructure was a grave threat to global energy security, the environment, and millions of regional residents. The growing specificity and credibility of Iran’s threat set it apart from earlier declarations and gave it a military seriousness that the world could not dismiss. With named targets, evacuation orders, and a tight window, the Gulf’s energy war had reached a critical and potentially catastrophic juncture.