Iran plans to attack Gulf oil facilities after Israel hits key gas field – National
Iran stepped up its attacks on oil and gas facilities around the Gulf on Thursday, raising the stakes in a war that is sending shockwaves through the global economy.
The strikes, in retaliation for Israel’s attack on a key gas field in Iran, sent fuel prices soaring and threatened to draw Iran’s neighbors directly into the conflict. Tehran’s focus on energy production has also stressed global supplies that are already under pressure due to Iran’s hold on the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil is transported.
Underscoring the dangers of shipping in the region, a ship was burned off the coast of the United Arab Emirates and another was damaged off Qatar. But efforts to bypass the road were also under pressure: An Iranian drone hit a Saudi refinery in the Red Sea, which the country had hoped to use as an alternative exit route.
Brent crude oil, the international standard, rose to US$118 a barrel, up more than 60 percent since Israel and the United States went to war on February 28 with strikes on Iran.
Energy infrastructure is targeted
Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE condemned the attack by Iran. Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit called them a “dangerous escalation.”
But Iran showed no signs of backing down. Saudi Arabia intercepted six drones in Riyadh and the Eastern Province before the SAMREF refinery in the Red Sea port of Yanbu was struck.
Saudi Arabia had begun pumping more oil west of the Red Sea to avoid the Strait of Hormuz. The Saudi Ministry of Defense and Shell said damage assessments are ongoing at the facility.
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Qatar, which is an important source of natural gas in the world market, said that firefighters put out a fire at the Ras Laffan LNG facility after it was hit by Iranian missiles. Production had been halted there after the previous attack. State-owned QatarEnergy said the fire had caused extensive damage, while oil giant Shell said it was investigating.
Ras Laffan is the world’s largest liquefied natural gas export facility, according to QatarEnergy. Damage to the facility could delay Qatar’s ability to get goods to market even after the war ends.
A drone attack on Kuwait’s Mina Al-Ahmadi oil refinery sparked a fire but did not injure anyone, KUNA media reported. The refinery is one of the largest in the Middle East. Soon after, a drone attack set fire to the nearby Mina Abdullah refinery, officials said.
Authorities in Abu Dhabi said they were forced to shut down operations at its Habshan gas field and Bab field, calling the overnight Iranian attack on the sites a “dangerous escalation.”
In Israel, more than half a dozen waves of Iranian attacks have targeted large parts of the country and sent millions of people into shelters. The strikes caused damage to buildings but no casualties were reported.
Iran’s strikes were retaliatory
Iran’s attack came after Israel attacked South Pars, the Iranian site of the world’s largest offshore gas field in the Persian Gulf and jointly owned by Qatar.
Since about 80 percent of all energy generated in Iran comes from natural gas, according to the Paris-based International Energy Agency, this attack threatens the country’s electricity supply. Natural gas is also used to provide domestic heating and cooking throughout the Islamic Republic.
Hitting the gas field is “a clear escalation of conflict,” New York’s Soufan Center said in a research paper.
“Israel’s election in this war is very much centered on institutions, leaders and infrastructure,” the think tank said. “Now it wants to put more pressure on the government by making the living conditions of the citizens intolerable.”
Iran has condemned the South Pars strike, with President Masoud Pezeshkian warning of “uncontrollable consequences” that could “overwhelm the whole world.”
In Washington, President Donald Trump said that Israel will not attack South Pars again, but he warned on social media that if Iran continues to attack the energy infrastructure of Qatar, the US will retaliate and “blow up” the field.
“I do not want to authorize this level of violence and destruction because of the long-term consequences it will have on the future of Iran,” Trump said on social media.
Iran has announced the execution of three men arrested in January protests across the country, the first such executions known to have been carried out, the judiciary’s Mizan news agency reported.
They are accused of stabbing and killing two police officers in Qom, 130 kilometers south of the capital, Tehran, during protests.
Iran has quashed protests with widespread violence that have killed thousands of people and seen tens of thousands more arrested, and activists have warned that authorities could carry out mass executions of those detained.
Iran has long been accused by rights campaigners of coercing confessions from detainees and not allowing them to fully defend themselves in court.
The death toll rises in the third week of the war
More than 1,300 people in Iran have been killed during the war. Israeli strikes against the Iran-backed Hezbollah group in Lebanon have left more than a million people dead – about 20 percent of the population – according to the Lebanese government, which says more than 900 people have been killed.
In Israel, 15 people have been killed by Iranian missile fire. Four people were also killed in a West Bank overnight stay when Iranian missiles were fired, according to officials.
13 members of the US military died.
© 2026 The Canadian Press
