Tiamat (@toxfox.bsky.social)

Energy under attack: What the Gulf can learn from Ukraine and Iraq WASHINGTON—On March 2, two days after US and Israeli forces began air strikes on Iran, Iranian forces struck back by targeting energy infrastructure in Qatar’s Ras Laffan Industrial City and a Saudi oil facility in the kingdom’s Eastern Province. Just this week, Iranian drones set ablaze Oman’s Salalah port oil storage facility. The attacks offered a reminder that energy infrastructure—once treated primarily as economic assets—has become a frontline target in modern conflict. The stakes are significant. Saudi Arabia exports roughly seven million barrels of crude per day, while Qatar accounts for about one-fifth of globally traded liquefied natural gas. Nearly 20 percent of global oil consumption passes through the Strait of Hormuz. For decades, Gulf energy infrastructure developed in a strategic environment shaped by the US security umbrella and the assumption that major export facilities would not be deliberately targeted by state adversaries. As a result, oil terminals, pipelines, and liquefied natural gas plants were engineered primarily for scale and export efficiency. In other words, they were not designed to be part of a battlefield. As a result, energy security in the region has often been treated primarily as a corporate security problem managed by national oil companies, rather than... https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/dispatches/energy-under-attack-what-the-gulf-can-learn-from-ukraine-and-iraq/