Iran issued what appeared to be a final warning to the Gulf energy sector on Wednesday after the South Pars gasfield was struck by Israeli forces in what officials on both sides described as a pivotal moment. The Revolutionary Guards named specific facilities in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar as targets for imminent strikes and ordered immediate evacuation. Oil prices surged toward $110 a barrel as the final warning brought the Gulf’s energy sector to the edge of its most destructive episode yet.
South Pars, the world’s largest natural gas reserve, is shared between Iran and Qatar and has been the pillar of Iran’s energy economy throughout the conflict. The Israeli strike — reportedly with US authorization — was the pivotal first attack on Iranian fossil fuel production, breaking months of careful restraint. The restraint was gone, and Iran’s final warning to the Gulf energy sector was the most specific and credible retaliatory declaration of the entire war.
Named targets in Iran’s final warning included Saudi Arabia’s Samref refinery and Jubail complex, the UAE’s al-Hosn gasfield, and Qatar’s Mesaieed and Ras Laffan facilities. All workers and residents near these sites were ordered to leave without delay. Governor Eskandar Pasalar of Asaluyeh condemned the US-Israeli attack as “political suicide” and declared the conflict had entered a full-scale economic war phase from which neither side could step back easily.
Brent crude rose to $108.60 per 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 levels, a product of sustained infrastructure attacks and Iran’s Strait of Hormuz blockade. Iran had maintained its own crude exports through the strait while blocking Gulf neighbors from doing so — a strategic asymmetry that had defined the conflict’s economic character throughout and now threatened to be dramatically deepened.
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 pivotal moment that the South Pars strike represented had produced an equally pivotal response — a final warning that named specific targets, issued evacuation orders, and set a tight window for action. The Gulf energy sector stood at its most consequential crossroads in decades, and the world was watching to see which path would be taken.