Iran threatens Gulf energy targets after Pars gas field is struck

2026-03-18 - 19:50

Iran’s huge Pars gas field was hit on Wednesday, a major escalation in the U.S.-Israeli war, prompting Tehran to announce it would respond with ​attacks on oil and gas targets throughout the Gulf. Oil prices shot up after the attack in a conflict that has already halted shipping from the world’s most important energy-producing region and could now bring ‌lasting damage to its infrastructure. Benchmark Brent crude prices rose around 5% to above $108. Stock markets veered lower. Pars is the Iranian sector of the world’s largest natural gas deposit, which Iran shares with Qatar across the Gulf. Iran’s Fars news agency reported that gas tanks and parts of a refinery had been hit, workers had been evacuated to a safe location and emergency crews were trying to put out a fire. State media later said the fire was under control. The attack was widely reported in Israeli media to have been ​carried out by Israel with U.S. consent, though neither country acknowledged immediate responsibility. The Israeli military did not respond to requests for comment. Qatar, a close U.S. ally which hosts the largest U.S. airbase in the ​region, blamed the attack on Israel without mentioning any U.S. role. The Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson called it a “dangerous and irresponsible” escalation that put global energy security at risk. ⁠The UAE also denounced the attack. Iran listed an array of prominent regional oil and gas targets belonging to Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar, which it said were now “direct and legitimate targets” and should be evacuated at once before ​it struck them in the coming hours. Previously during nearly three weeks of war, the U.S. and Israel had held back from targeting Iran’s energy production facilities in the Gulf, averting Iranian retaliation against the oil and gas industries of its neighbours. Iran ​has already shut the Strait of Hormuz, which handles 20% of global oil and liquefied natural gas supply, but consuming nations are hoping the disruption will prove short-lived as long as production infrastructure is spared. Iran’s warning was directed at Saudi Arabia’s Samref Refinery and Jubail Petrochemical Complex, the UAE’s Al Hosn Gas Field, and Qatar’s Mesaieed Petrochemical Complex, Mesaieed Holding Company and Ras Laffan Refinery. ‘EVERYONE IS IN THE CROSSHAIRS’ The Israeli military also hit central Beirut, destroying apartment buildings in some of the most intense airstrikes on the Lebanese capital for ​decades, on Israel’s other front in the war it launched with the U.S. against Iran. Israel killed Iran’s intelligence minister Esmail Khatib on Wednesday, a day after killing powerful security chief Ali Larijani. “No one in Iran has immunity and everyone is in ​the crosshairs,” said Defence Minister Israel Katz. He and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had authorised the Israeli military “to target any senior Iranian official for whom an intelligence and operational opportunity arises, without the need for additional approval”, Katz said. It appeared to be ‌the first time ⁠Israel has publicly stated that it would let the military target enemy officials without seeking special permission from political leaders. In Tehran, thousands of people appeared in the streets for a funeral for Larijani and other slain figures. The crowd waved Iranian flags and carried portraits of the dead as a eulogist sang: “Martyrs are leading the way, they’ve become more alive, burning with love.” Iran retaliated for the killing of Larijani by firing missiles at Israel, which Israeli authorities said killed two people near Tel Aviv. Tehran said it fired overnight on Tel Aviv, Haifa and Beersheba in Israel, and at U.S. bases in Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s new supreme leader, said those responsible ​for Larijani’s death would pay for his blood. Several loud bangs were ​heard in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Wednesday ⁠and some of its residents received phone alerts for the first time warning them of a hostile aerial threat, a Reuters witness in the city said. State TV said Saudi air defences had dealt with a “ballistic threat”. ENERGY PRICES SURGE The attack on Iran’s gas field threatens to worsen an unprecedented disruption to global energy supplies that has raised the political stakes ​for U.S. President Donald Trump. Diesel prices in the United States have already risen above $5 a gallon for the first time since the 2022 inflation surge that ​eroded support for his predecessor Joe ⁠Biden. Vice President JD Vance said the Trump administration would announce a “couple of things” in the next 24 to 48 hours to tackle rising gas prices. In central Beirut’s Bachoura district, Israel warned residents early on Wednesday to leave a building it said was used by Hezbollah, which it then completely flattened. Abu Khalil, who lives in the area, said he had helped people flee nearby homes after the Israeli warning. “It’s just an operation to hurt, to terrify people, to terrify children,” he told Reuters. Inside Israel, the ⁠ambulance service reported ​that a 44-year-old man and two children, aged 13 and 12, in Petah Tikva, east of Tel Aviv, were hospitalised with blast injuries ​following an Iranian missile attack. U.S.-based Iran human rights group HRANA said on Monday that an estimated 3,000-plus people had been killed in Iran since the U.S.-Israeli attacks began on February 28. Authorities in Lebanon say 900 people have been killed there and 800,000 forced to flee their homes. Iranian ​attacks have killed people in Iraq and across the Gulf states. Fourteen have been killed in Israel.