The Gulf energy sector was racing against the clock on Wednesday after Iran issued a retaliation warning against facilities in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar following an Israeli attack on the South Pars gasfield. The Revolutionary Guards named specific targets and set a timeframe of hours for strikes, while ordering immediate evacuation. Oil prices surged toward $110 a barrel as the clock ticked down on the Gulf energy sector’s most consequential countdown.
South Pars, the world’s largest natural gas reserve, is shared between Iran and Qatar and central to Iran’s energy economy. The Israeli attack — reportedly with US backing — was the first direct strike on Iranian fossil fuel production. Both countries had previously avoided this move, but the decision to attack South Pars triggered a retaliation warning with a tight timeframe — one that left the Gulf energy sector racing against a clock set by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
Named targets on Iran’s countdown list 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 leave without delay. Asaluyeh governor Eskandar Pasalar called the US-Israeli escalation “political suicide” and declared the conflict had entered a full-scale economic war.
Brent crude rose to $108.60 per barrel, while European gas benchmarks surged 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 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 weapon that had shaped the conflict’s economic dimension throughout and now threatened to be compounded by the countdown.
Qatar’s government spokesperson Majid al-Ansari warned that targeting energy infrastructure was a direct threat to global energy security, the environment, and millions of regional residents. The race against the clock that Iran’s warning had set in motion was one that the Gulf energy sector, diplomatic channels, and global markets were all running simultaneously — and all dreading the moment when the countdown would reach zero.