The Middle East energy crisis was pushed to breaking point on Wednesday when Iran issued a retaliation warning against Gulf energy infrastructure following an Israeli strike on the South Pars gasfield. The Revolutionary Guards named specific facilities in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar as imminent targets and ordered evacuation. Oil prices climbed toward $110 a barrel as the crisis reached its most acute and dangerous point yet.
South Pars, the world’s largest natural gas reserve shared between Iran and Qatar, had been kept off the battlefield throughout the conflict. The Israeli strike on the field — reportedly with US authorization — was the first time Iran’s fossil fuel sector had been directly targeted. Washington and Tel Aviv had previously maintained this restraint, but the decision to abandon it provoked Iran’s most specific and time-bound military threat of the war.
Iran’s state media 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 personnel were instructed to evacuate without delay. Iran’s Asaluyeh governor said the conflict had entered a “full-scale economic war” phase and called the US-Israeli decision to attack South Pars “political suicide.”
Brent crude rose nearly 5% to $108.60 a barrel, while European gas benchmarks surged more than 7.5% to over €55.50 per megawatt hour. 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 continued to ship its own crude through the strait unimpeded while blocking Gulf neighbors’ exports, giving it a significant strategic and economic advantage throughout the conflict.
Qatar’s government spokesperson Majid al-Ansari warned that targeting energy infrastructure constituted a threat to global energy security and regional populations. The retaliation warning had pushed the crisis to a point where diplomatic solutions seemed distant and market anxiety was at its peak. The coming hours would reveal whether the breaking point had truly been reached — or whether there was still room to step back from the brink.