A new and more dangerous chapter of the Middle East conflict opened on Wednesday as Iran vowed to strike Gulf energy installations after the South Pars gasfield was hit by Israeli forces. The Revolutionary Guards named specific facilities in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar as imminent targets and ordered evacuation. Oil prices surged toward $110 a barrel as the new chapter brought the Gulf’s most critical energy installations directly into the line of fire.
South Pars, the world’s largest natural gas reserve, is shared between Iran and Qatar and central to Iran’s energy economy. The Israeli hit on the field — reportedly with US authorization — was the first direct attack on Iranian fossil fuel production in the conflict. Washington and Tel Aviv had previously avoided this move, but crossing it opened the new chapter Iran had long warned it would write if its energy infrastructure were targeted.
Named installations in Iran’s vow included Saudi Arabia’s Samref refinery and Jubail complex, the UAE’s al-Hosn gasfield, and Qatar’s Mesaieed and Ras Laffan facilities. Workers and residents near these sites were told to evacuate without delay. The governor of Asaluyeh province called the US-Israeli decision “political suicide” and said the conflict had entered a total economic war phase.
Brent crude rose nearly 5% to $108.60 per barrel, while European gas prices climbed more than 7.5%. Gulf oil exports had already been reduced by 60% from pre-war volumes due to infrastructure damage and Iran’s Strait of Hormuz blockade. Iran had continued to export its own crude through the strait while blocking Gulf neighbors’ shipments — a strategic advantage that had defined the conflict’s economic dimension and now threatened to be compounded by a devastating new wave of strikes on Gulf installations.
Qatar’s government spokesperson warned that targeting energy infrastructure threatened global energy security and the welfare of millions. The new chapter that Iran had vowed to write was one with no guaranteed ending — one in which the Gulf’s energy installations were the battleground and the global economy was the hostage. The coming hours would determine what the first pages of that new chapter would contain.