The power of oil and gas producers might grow disproportionately. Civilization as we know it might die together with Israel.
The escalating conflict between Israel and Iran, which began on February 28, 2026, has dramatically impacted global energy supplies, with key infrastructure in the Persian Gulf coming under attack.
As of March 18, 2026, the conflict has widened, with Israeli strikes targeting Iranian leaders and natural gas fields, including the major South Pars offshore field.
Iran has retaliated by targeting energy facilities in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE, while also making the strategic Strait of Hormuz—through which roughly 20% of the world’s oil passes—nearly impassable.
Impact on Energy Supplies and Global Economy
Surging Oil Prices: Oil trading surged above $108 a barrel, a more than 40% increase since the start of the conflict.
Supply Disruptions: The attacks have created immediate disruptions to the global energy supply chain, leading to increased costs for consumers and industries worldwide.
Infrastructure Attacks: Iran has targeted key regional infrastructure, including the Habshan gas facility and the Bab field in the UAE, which were shut down following attacks.
Escalating Regional War: The conflict has resulted in significant damage to infrastructure, with Iranian officials warning that the "uncontrollable consequences" of the attacks could affect the entire world.
Influence on Daily Life and Industry
The escalating conflict, with its direct targeting of energy infrastructure, significantly impacts global, daily life.
Energy and Industry: The destruction or shutdown of energy production facilities in the Gulf—a major source of global energy—increases the cost and reduces the availability of oil and gas. This affects not only fuel prices but also the production of goods and the cost of transportation.
Food Production and Rebuilding: Because oil and gas are crucial for industrial agriculture (fertilizer, transportation) and general infrastructure rebuilding, a sustained disruption to these supplies can hamper agricultural output and delay industrial reconstruction.
Shift in Power: The crisis has created a situation where the power of oil and gas producers could increase, particularly for those whose infrastructure remains operational or who are outside the immediate conflict zone. This is where a real danger for Israel comes – increasing power of Arabs and dissolving advantages of military industry in America because of rare earths and drone revolution. The danger is that the traditional Israeli advantage—high-cost, high-tech superiority—is being challenged by lower-cost, high-volume drone threats, while regional adversaries gain technological, and regional, confidence.
Potential for Long-Term Disruption
The situation remains volatile, with both sides intensifying their attacks on energy infrastructure and threatening further action. The potential for long-term supply disruption is high, as the conflict has now directly targeted the critical energy infrastructure that powers the global economy. The impact on food and industrial production is a key concern, as the availability of energy is vital for both.
“Escalating attacks on Persian Gulf oil-and-gas infrastructure are sending the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran into a dangerous new phase that threatens to worsen the crisis over global energy supplies.
Israel struck at the crown jewel of Iran's energy industry on Wednesday -- the giant South Pars gas field that Iran shares with Qatar and is by far the largest in the world. Iran retaliated with two attacks on a major gas hub in Qatar just across the Gulf and a missile barrage fired at the Saudi capital, Riyadh, with debris landing near a refinery.
Israel and Iran had already hit energy facilities throughout the nearly three-week-old war, but Wednesday's attacks struck some of the world's most important hubs and raised the prospect of tit-for-tat volleys against oil-and-gas facilities. Already, the conflict has effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic chokepoint between the Persian Gulf and the wider world that carries about 20% of the global oil and liquefied-natural gas supply during normal times.
Israel's attack was aimed at stifling an important source of revenue for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the group charged with defending the Iranian regime from internal and foreign threats, people familiar with the matter said. The Guard were instrumental in violently suppressing protests in January, killing around 7,000 people, rights groups said.
The U.S., which had previously pledged to rein in attacks on Iran's energy infrastructure, was informed of the plan ahead of time and had no issues with it, American and Israeli officials said on Wednesday.
President Trump approved of the strike, U.S. officials said, to pressure Iran to unblock the Strait of Hormuz. The officials said Trump believed Tehran received the message and wants to refrain from further strikes on Iranian energy infrastructure.
On Wednesday night, Trump denied that the U.S. knew in advance about Israel's attack on South Pars. "The United States knew nothing about this particular attack" on South Pars, Trump said. "Unfortunately, Iran did not know this, or any of the pertinent facts pertaining to the South Pars attack, and unjustifiably and unfairly attacked a portion of Qatar's LNG Gas facility," he said on social media, referring to Iran's retaliatory strikes on Qatar's liquefied-natural gas hub that was hit once on Wednesday and again on Thursday morning local time. "NO MORE ATTACKS WILL BE MADE BY ISRAEL," Trump added.
The president went on to say that if Iran strikes Qatar's gas hub again, the U.S. "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 attack hit facilities that process gas coming from the field. Fars News, which is affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard, reported explosions at several units in that complex, affecting storage tanks and operating infrastructure for several phases of the field.
Iran's missile attack later Wednesday on Ras Laffan, where Qatar has facilities for gas pumped from its side of the giant field, left extensive damage and set fires after four missiles were intercepted and one got through. Qatar is one of the world's biggest exporters of liquefied natural gas, a superchilled substance that can be shipped around the globe.
Qatar condemned the attack as a direct threat to its national security.
Benchmark Brent oil futures shot up to close to $110 a barrel, and European gas prices surged 6% in the hours following the news. Traders were pricing in the risk that Iran could keep attacking Gulf energy infrastructure and worsen a supply crisis that has removed millions of barrels of oil from global supply.
"It opens the door to more infrastructure attacks in the region," said Neil Crosby of Geneva-based market-intelligence company Sparta Commodities.
The Revolutionary Guard said refineries, petrochemical facilities and gas fields in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar have become direct and legitimate targets after the Israeli attack on South Pars. Operators began evacuations for sites on the list, as well as other energy facilities in the region as a precaution, Gulf oil officials said.
Attacking those facilities would create "a new level of energy impact from this war beyond the closing of the Strait of Hormuz, as the time to repair facilities following damage could outlast the war," said Martin Senior, head of LNG pricing at Argus Media.
Arab governments were furious about Israel's attack and the U.S. failure to head it off, officials said. They had aggressively lobbied the Trump administration to stop U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iranian energy infrastructure and now feel a target has been put on their back, they said.
"The Israeli targeting of facilities linked to Iran's South Pars field, an extension of Qatar's North Field, is a dangerous & irresponsible step amid the current military escalation in the region," Majed Al Ansari, an adviser to Qatar's prime minister, said on social media.
The U.A.E. said targeting the field posed a threat to global-energy security.
Energy prices were on an upswing after Iran effectively shut the strait to put pressure on the U.S. and Israel to end the war. Iran also has attacked key energy facilities across the Gulf, forcing several to shut at times.
The strikes came as Israel said it had killed Iranian Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib, whom it described as having played a significant role during the Tehran regime's crackdown on recent protests.
Earlier, Iranian missile attacks in retaliation for Israel's killing of Iranian security chief Ali Larijani caused heavy damage across central Israel, killing a man and women in their 70s.
Gulf states have warned the U.S. repeatedly about the risk of further escalation in an industry crucial to their livelihoods and the world economy.
Their concerns grew sharply in early March when Israel expanded its targets to hit fuel depots and refineries in Tehran. The administration told Israel it wasn't happy with the attacks and told its ally not to repeat them unless Washington signed off, U.S. officials said at the time.
Gulf states are experiencing unprecedented production shut-ins. JPMorgan expects oil- and oil- products-supply cuts to approach 12 million barrels a day by the end of the week, more than 10% of global demand. "In an environment where global supply is short by nearly seven million barrels a day, the only way the market can rebalance is through a comparable reduction in consumption," said Natasha Kaneva, an analyst at JPMorgan.” [1]
In short, get ready to drastically reduce your consumption.
1. Strikes on Gulf Energy Escalate --- Attacks by Israel, Iran put oil, gas supplies in the crosshairs of growing conflict. Said, Summer; Feng, Rebecca; Ward, Alexander. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 19 Mar 2026: A1.
Komentarų nėra:
Rašyti komentarą