(Corrects headline to refer to energy hub, rather that refinery, and removes reference to refinery in paragraph 12)
By Parisa Hafezi, Rami Ayyub and Maya Gebeily
DUBAI/JERUSALEM/BEIRUT, March 18 (Reuters) - Iran's huge Pars gas field was hit on Wednesday in a major escalation in the U.S.-Israeli war that sent oil prices shooting higher, and Tehran struck Qatar and fired missiles at Saudi Arabia after vowing attacks on oil and gas targets throughout the Gulf.
Qatar's state oil giant QatarEnergy reported "extensive damage" after the Ras Laffan Industrial City, an energy-industry hub, was hit by Iranian missiles. Saudi Arabia said it had intercepted and destroyed four ballistic missiles launched toward Riyadh on Wednesday and an attempted drone attack on a gas facility in the east of the country.
The escalation 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.
The 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.
In Washington, U.S. spy chief Tulsi Gabbard told Congress Iran's government has been degraded since the war began on February 28, but it appears to be intact, with Tehran and its proxies still capable of attacking the U.S. and allies' interests in the Middle East.
U.S. producer prices increased by the most in seven months in February, driven by higher costs for services and a range of goods, and could accelerate further as the war boosts oil prices.
U.S. 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.
Pars is the Iranian sector of the world's largest natural gas deposit, which Iran shares with Qatar across the Gulf.
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.
Iran's Fars news agency reported that gas tanks and parts of a refinery had been hit. It said workers had been evacuated and state media later said the fire there was under control.
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, and called it "dangerous and irresponsible" that put global energy security at risk. The UAE also denounced the attack.
Iran listed an array of prominent regional oil and gas facilities it called "direct and legitimate targets" - 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.
It said they should be evacuated at once before it struck them in the coming hours.
The U.S. and Israel had previously 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 have hoped the disruption would prove short-lived as long as production infrastructure was spared.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas spoke by phone on Wednesday with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and said safe passage through the Strait was a priority for Europe and that the EU supports a diplomatic solution to the war.
'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.
Israel killed Iran's intelligence minister Esmail Khatib on Wednesday, a day after killing powerful security chief Ali Larijani, and Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said "no one in Iran has immunity and everyone is in the crosshairs."
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."
In Tehran, thousands appeared in the streets for a funeral for Larijani and other slain figures.
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.
ENERGY PRICES SURGE
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.
(Reporting by Reuters bureaux, Writing by Peter Graff, Matthias Williams and David Brunnstrom; Editing by Ros Russell, Gareth Jones and Diane Craft)
