Iran put the Gulf on edge with unusually specific and time-bound threats against Gulf energy infrastructure on Wednesday, following an Israeli strike on the South Pars gasfield. The Revolutionary Guards named individual facilities in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar and ordered immediate evacuation, saying strikes would come “in the coming hours.” Oil prices surged nearly 5% to $108.60 a barrel as the unprecedented specificity of the threat alarmed markets and governments alike.

South Pars holds the world’s largest natural gas reserves and is shared between Iran and Qatar. The Israeli strike on the field — reportedly authorized by the US — was the first time Iran’s fossil fuel sector had been directly targeted. Washington and Tel Aviv had previously avoided this move, knowing it risked triggering the kind of sweeping and specific retaliation that was now playing out. The specificity of Iran’s response left little room for doubt about its seriousness.

Named targets included Saudi Arabia’s Samref refinery and Jubail complex, the UAE’s al-Hosn gasfield, and Qatar’s Mesaieed and Ras Laffan installations. All workers and residents were ordered to leave without delay. Asaluyeh governor Eskandar Pasalar said the conflict had moved into a “full-scale economic war” and called the Israeli strike “political suicide” with consequences that would extend far beyond the immediate battlefield.

European gas benchmarks jumped more than 7.5% to over €55.50 per megawatt hour, while oil climbed toward $110. Gulf oil exports had already fallen 60% from pre-war levels due to infrastructure attacks and Iran’s Strait of Hormuz blockade. Iran had continued exporting its own crude through the strait unimpeded while preventing Gulf neighbors from doing so — a strategic advantage that had shaped the conflict’s economic dimension from the start.

Qatar’s government spokesperson Majid al-Ansari warned that attacking energy infrastructure endangered global energy security and the welfare of regional populations. The combination of specific targets, a tight timeframe, and public evacuation orders gave Iran’s threat a credibility that markets and governments could not dismiss. The world waited with growing anxiety to see whether the energy war would claim its next and most devastating casualties.