The war between US-Israel and the Iran is steadily undergoing concerning transformation - it is pivoting away from traditional military installations toward the economic lifeline of the modern world: energy infrastructures across West Asia.
In a series of high-stakes escalations that have sent global oil prices soaring, both sides and their regional neighbours are steadily getting locked in a conflict where the primary targets are no longer barracks and bunkers, but gas fields and refineries.
From Qatar’s Ras Laffan to Iran’s South Pars and Kuwait's Mina Al-Ahmadi complex to Saudi’s Shaybah refineries, the list of West Asian energy sites untouched by the fire of conflict is becoming increasingly shorter.
The transition to infrastructure warfare intensified following an Israeli strike on Iran’s massive South Pars offshore natural gas field.
While the Trump administration stated the US "knew nothing about this particular attack", the strike targeted a pillar of Iranian energy.
Analysts from the German Institute for International and Security Affairs noted that South Pars is central to Iran’s electricity and industrial activity, and even limited disruptions cause immediate economic strain.
“South Pars is central to Iran’s gas supply and, by extension, to electricity generation and industrial activity,” Hamidreza Azizi told Bloomberg by email. “Even limited or temporary disruptions can translate into power shortages, industrial slowdowns, and broader economic strain.”
Iranian missiles struck Qatar’s Ras Laffan Industrial City, the world’s premier liquefied natural gas (LNG) export hub.
QatarEnergy confirmed that the attacks on Wednesday and early Thursday caused sizeable fires and extensive further damage, specifically hitting the Pearl Gas-to-Liquids (GTL) facility.
"In addition to the previous attack on Ras Laffan Industrial City on Wednesday 18 March 2026 that resulted in extensive damage to the Pearl GTL (Gas-to-Liquids) facility, QatarEnergy confirms that in the early hours of Thursday 19 March 2026, several of its Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) facilities were the subject of missile attacks, causing sizeable fires and extensive further damage," the world's second-largerst exporter said in an official statement.
Emergency response teams were deployed immediately to contain the resulting damage with no reported casualties.
In a diplomatic rupture, Qatar declared Iranian attaches persona non grata, ordering them to leave within 24 hours following what it called a flagrant violation of sovereignty and a direct threat to national security.
In the United Arab Emirates, authorities reported a dangerous escalation after falling debris from intercepted missiles forced the temporary shutdown of the Habshan gas facilities and the Bab oil field.
In Kuwait, the situation worsened further on Thursday, as drone strikes hit two refineries, including the massive Mina Al-Ahmadi complex, sparking fires but causing no reported injuries.
Further west, the Saudi Ministry of Defence reported neutralising a swarm of drones targeting the Shaybah oil field in the Empty Quarter desert. The Ras Tanura refinery along Saudi Arabia’s eastern Gulf coast, one of the largest in the Middle East with a capacity of around 550,000 barrels per day, has also been previously hit by Iranian attacks earlier in the conflict, causing fires and temporary disruption before operations later resumed.
As Iran labels energy facilities in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Kuwait as legitimate targets according to the Tasnim News Agency, the regional toll is mounting.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Kharg Island near the Strait of Hormuz, located about 30 kilometres off its mainland and responsible for roughly 90% of the country’s crude oil exports, was struck in earlier US attacks.
Iraq reported a loss of power generation after Iran halted gas supplies, while Kuwait announced arrests involving a group affiliated with Hezbollah that had allegedly foiled a plot to target vital facilities.
Tom Marzec-Manser of Wood Mackenzie Ltd told Bloomberg News that a retaliatory attack on Ras Laffan is exactly what the global natural gas market feared the most, noting there is no strategic reserve for LNG.
“A retaliatory attack on Ras Laffan is exactly what the global natural gas market feared the most… it’s going to be bullish for gas prices when the market opens on Thursday," he said.
The shift toward economic targets has pushed Brent crude prices up nearly 50% since the war's inception, with oil trading above $112 a barrel.
As US gasoline prices hit a two-year high of $3.84 a gallon on Wednesday, President Donald Trump has issued a series of blunt warnings via social media.
While distancing the US from the initial South Pars strike, Trump warned that if Iran continues to target Qatar, the United States could massively blow up the entirety of the South Pars field.
"Israel, out of anger for what has taken place in the Middle East, has violently lashed out at a major facility known as South Pars Gas Field in Iran. A relatively small section of the whole has been hit. The United States knew nothing about this particular attack, and the country of Qatar was in no way, shape, or form, involved with it, nor did it have any idea that it was going to happen," Trump said in a Truth Social post.
"No more attacks will be made by Israel pertaining to this extremely important and valuable South Pars Field unless Iran unwisely decides to attack a very innocent, in this case, Qatar - In which instance the United States of America, with or without the help or consent of Israel, will massively blow up the entirety of the South Pars Gas Field at an amount of strength and power that Iran has never seen or witnessed before,” the US President added.
This rhetoric follows the US military’s use of 5,000-pound munitions on Iranian missile sites last week the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway that remains largely impassable due to threats from mines and attack boats.
Despite the destruction of energy sites, the war’s human cost continues to climb with over 4,000 dead, the majority in Iran.
High-profile assassinations of Iranian leaders like Esmail Khatib and Ali Larijani have only hardened the resolve of both sides.
Source Name : Economic Times