Iran issued a sweeping threat against Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE’s energy infrastructure on Wednesday after Israeli forces struck the South Pars gasfield — the world’s largest natural gas reserve. The Revolutionary Guards named specific facilities and told workers to evacuate, saying the sites were imminent targets. Oil prices surged nearly 5% to $108.60 a barrel as the scope of Iran’s threat became clear.

South Pars, shared between Iran and Qatar, has been at the core of Iran’s gas economy for decades. The Israeli strike on the field — reportedly authorized by the US — was the first direct attack on Iran’s fossil fuel sector in the conflict. Until now, both Washington and Tel Aviv had kept Iranian energy infrastructure off-limits, mindful of the global economic consequences of changing that calculus.

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 for imminent strikes. Evacuation orders were publicly issued. Asaluyeh governor Eskandar Pasalar called the Israeli strike “political suicide” and declared the conflict had entered a full-scale economic war phase.

European gas prices jumped more than 7.5% to over €55.50 per megawatt hour. Gulf oil exports had already fallen 60% from pre-war volumes due to infrastructure damage and Iran’s Strait of Hormuz blockade. A week earlier, global oil prices had briefly surpassed $116 a barrel. The threat of Iranian strikes on Gulf energy facilities raised fears of further and deeper supply disruptions that could send prices far higher.

Qatar’s government spokesperson warned that targeting energy infrastructure threatened global energy security and the region’s populations. The conflict had now explicitly encompassed the Gulf’s energy backbone, placing in jeopardy the supply lines that power much of the global economy. As Iran’s deadline approached, the world watched the Gulf’s most consequential energy standoff in decades with growing dread.