Iran backed up its South Pars retaliation threat with a specific target list and evacuation orders on Wednesday, following an Israeli attack on the world’s largest natural gas reserve. The Revolutionary Guards named facilities in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar as imminent targets and told workers and residents to leave immediately. Oil prices surged toward $110 a barrel as the backing of words with specific operational details alarmed markets and governments worldwide.
South Pars, shared between Iran and Qatar, is fundamental to Iran’s gas export revenues and domestic energy supply. The Israeli attack — reportedly with US backing — was the first direct strike on Iranian fossil fuel production in the conflict. Washington and Tel Aviv had previously avoided this move, but the decision to attack South Pars was immediately backed by Iran’s most operationally specific retaliatory announcement of the war.
The target list published by Iran’s state media included Saudi Arabia’s Samref refinery and Jubail complex, the UAE’s al-Hosn gasfield, and Qatar’s Mesaieed and Ras Laffan facilities. Evacuation orders were broadcast publicly and with urgency. Asaluyeh governor Eskandar Pasalar called the US-Israeli strike “political suicide” and declared the war had entered a full-scale economic phase.
Brent crude rose nearly 5% to $108.60 per barrel, while European gas prices jumped more than 7.5% to above €55.50 per megawatt hour. Gulf oil exports had already fallen 60% from pre-war levels due to sustained infrastructure strikes and Iran’s Strait of Hormuz blockade. Iran had maintained its own crude shipments through the strait unimpeded while blocking Gulf neighbors from doing so — a strategic advantage that had persisted throughout the conflict.
Qatar’s government spokesperson Majid al-Ansari warned that targeting energy infrastructure was a direct threat to global energy security and regional welfare. The backing of Iran’s retaliation threat with a specific target list and evacuation orders gave it a military seriousness that no amount of diplomatic reassurance could fully neutralize. The world’s energy markets and governments were left to grapple with the implications of what the next few hours might bring.