Oil jumps 5%, gas prices up 8% as Iran lists Gulf energy targets

Tehran issued a list of similar assets in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates that it said residents should avoid.

• Brent oil surged 5% after Iran listed energy assets as targets
• Iran claims US and Israel attacked South Pars gas field
• Ship traffic through Strait of Hormuz halted amid conflict

Did our AI summary help?

Oil and European natural gas prices surged as Iran listed energy assets it would target after an attack on its upstream energy assets.

Brent oil climbed as much as 5% to a high of $108.60 a barrel, while Europe’s gas benchmark jumped as much as 7.9%, according to data from ICE Futures Europe.

Iran said that the US and Israel attacked the South Pars gas field and associated facilities at Asaluyeh. Tehran issued a list of similar assets in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates that it said residents should avoid.

The South Pars incident would mark the first strike on Iran’s upstream facilities since the war began. While the US struck oil export hub Kharg Island late last week, it limited that attack to military targets.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps responded by publishing a list of Gulf energy sites in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar that “have become direct and legitimate targets” following the attack on South Pars, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.

“New attacks bring the attention back to the physical supply reality of the war — curtailments in energy tighten every day,” said Rabobank’s energy strategist Florence Schmit.

The listed sites were: the Ras Laffan refinery and Mesaieed Petrochemical in Qatar, Samref refinery and Jubail petrochemical complex in Saudi Arabia and the Al Hosn gas field in the UAE.

The conflict has all but halted ship traffic through the crucial Strait of Hormuz and shut down production at the world’s biggest liquefied natural gas plant in Qatar. Several oil producing giants have also cut millions of barrels of output too.

Turkey imports more than 10% of its gas from Iran, and it could need more spot liquefied natural gas cargoes to replace lost volumes — if any — which would intensify global competition for the fuel.

Daily gas production at South Pars reached a record 730 million cubic meters in 2025, according to the Iranian oil ministry’s official news service, Shana.