{"id":204116,"date":"2026-03-15T02:51:04","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T02:51:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/u-s-bombing-of-kharg-island-irans-critical-oil-hub-sparks-new-threats-to-target-gulf-oil-infrastructure-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T02:51:04","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T02:51:04","slug":"u-s-bombing-of-kharg-island-irans-critical-oil-hub-sparks-new-threats-to-target-gulf-oil-infrastructure-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/u-s-bombing-of-kharg-island-irans-critical-oil-hub-sparks-new-threats-to-target-gulf-oil-infrastructure-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. bombing of Kharg Island, Iran's critical oil hub, sparks new threats to target Gulf oil infrastructure – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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U.S. forces have carried out \u201clarge-scale\u201d strikes on Kharg Island, a critical hub of Iran\u2019s Gulf oil operations<\/a>, with the country responding by threatening to strike U.S. allies\u2019 oil facilities if any of its infrastructure is damaged.
U.S. Central Command said Saturday that naval mine storage facilities and missile storage bunkers were among targets destroyed in the \u201cprecision strike\u201d on the island, hitting \u201c90 Iranian military targets\u201d while \u201cpreserving the oil infrastructure.\u201d
Kharg Island, a tiny but strategic island 15 miles off the coast of Iran in the Persian Gulf, is home to an oil terminal that ships 90% of the country\u2019s oil exports. There are also military capabilities<\/a> there, including air defenses and mines buried underground.
Announcing the strike in a post on Truth Social late Friday, President Donald Trump<\/a> said that U.S. forces had \u201ctotally obliterated every MILITARY target<\/a> in Iran\u2019s crown jewel, Kharg Island.\u201d
The island\u2019s oil terminal has so far been unscathed in the war, according to oil market research firm Energy Intelligence, and the president said the island\u2019s oil infrastructure was spared in Friday\u2019s attack, but could be struck down the road.
\u201cShould Iran, or anyone else, do anything to interfere with the Free and Safe Passage of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz, I will immediately reconsider this decision,\u201d Trump said, as Iran has actively interfered with shipping in the strait for several days.
Iran\u2019s Fars News Agency, which is linked to its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said on Telegram Saturday that more than 15 explosions were heard on the island during the U.S. attacks, which it said targeted air defenses, a naval base, an airport control tower and a helicopter hangar.
It said there was no damage to oil infrastructure on Kharg Island, but warned about the consequences of \u201cany attack\u201d on Iran\u2019s energy infrastructure.
\u201cIf this happens, all oil and gas infrastructure in the region in which the U.S. and its allies have interests will be set on fire and destroyed,\u201d Iran\u2019s armed forces said.
Iran has previously hit energy targets across the region, with a fire breaking out on Saturday following a drone attack at an oil terminal in the UAE.
Kharg Island is the \u201cbackbone\u201d of Iran\u2019s oil trade infrastructure, according to one analyst, who said Iran earned $53 billion in net oil export revenues in 2025, around 11% of the country\u2019s annual GDP.
The island \u201cserves as the physical hub enabling Iranian crude exports and the primary gateway for oil revenues,\u201d said Petras Katinas, a research fellow in climate, energy and defense at the Royal United Services Institute. It also allows Iran to sustain crude oil sales despite U.S. sanctions, he added, which \u201cundermines a key U.S. foreign policy tool.\u201d
Trump\u2019s focus on Kharg Island appears to go back decades. In an interview with The Guardian<\/a> newspaper in 1988 where Trump expressed his desire to one day be president, he said he\u2019d be \u201charsh on Iran\u201d and threaten the island.
\u201cOne bullet shot at one of our men or ships and I\u2019d do a number on Kharg Island,\u201d he said.
When asked by Fox Radio host Brian Kilmeade in an interview on Friday whether he would take Kharg Island after being reminded of his past comments, Trump said it \u201cwas not high on the list.\u201d
\u201cLet\u2019s say I was gonna do it, let\u2019s say I wasn\u2019t gonna do it,\u201d Trump said. \u201cIt\u2019s sort of a foolish question.\u201d
Two U.S. officials told NBC News last week<\/a> that Trump has privately expressed a serious interest in deploying U.S. troops inside Iran, and on Friday, three U.S. officials said that approximately 5,000 additional Marines and sailors would be deployed to the wider region to support the war effort.
Katinas said that seizing the island \u201cwould cut off Iran\u2019s oil lifeline\u201d but require a commitment of ground troops on Iranian soil, \u201cwhich this administration seems hesitant to undertake.\u201d
With shipping in the Strait of Hormuz now stopped, Iran \u201ccannot sell it anyway,\u201d he added. \u201cBut looking ahead, seizure would give the U.S. leverage during negotiations, no matter which regime is in power after the military operation ends.\u201d
In a Saturday post on Truth Social, Trump said nations affected by the disruption, including China, France, Japan, South Korea and the United Kingdom, could send warships to help keep the strait open alongside U.S. forces.
Ehsan Jahaniyan, the deputy governor of Bushehr, a port city close to Kharg Island, said Saturday after the strikes that \u201cexports, imports and the activities of companies on the island are proceeding normally.\u201d
The overnight strikes came after Iran\u2019s new supreme leader<\/a>, Mojtaba Khamenei, issued a fiery first public statement on Thursday<\/a>, vowing to keep blocking the vital Strait of Hormuz trade route and attacking Gulf states. The written statement was read by a state television announcer.
About one-fifth of global oil supplies and one-third of fertilizers used around the world pass through the vital waterway.
Eight seafarers and shipyard workers have been killed in attacks in the past two weeks, while four are still unaccounted for, according to the International Maritime Organization.
The price of oil has since soared back above $100 a barrel, while the U.S. eased sanctions on Russian oil<\/a> in a bid to stabilize markets, a move that drew criticism from Ukraine and Europe.
On Wednesday, the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution condemning Iran\u2019s attacks on its neighbors and calling on Tehran to halt its threats to ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
Asked about the possibility of the U.S. Navy escorting tankers through the strait while speaking to reporters on Joint Base Andrews on Friday, Trump said, \u201cIt\u2019ll happen soon. Very soon.\u201d
Trump also said that gas prices would fall when the war ends.
\u201cI think your gas prices, as soon as that\u2019s over, are going to come tumbling down, along with everything else. I think it\u2019s going to be \u2014 you\u2019re gonna see a very big decrease in the price of gasoline, gas, anything having to do with energy as soon as this has ended,\u201d the president said.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Friday dismissed the situation in the Strait of Hormuz<\/a>, suggesting that the blocked strategic waterway is not a major concern.
\u201cAs the world is seeing, they are exercising sheer desperation in the Straits of Hormuz, something we\u2019re dealing with. We have been dealing with it and don\u2019t need to worry about it,\u201d Hegseth said at the Pentagon news briefing.
\u201cWe\u2019re on plan to defeat, destroy, disable all of their meaningful military capabilities at a pace the world has never seen before,\u201d he added.
Freddie Clayton is a freelance journalist based in London.\u00a0
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeU.S. forces have carried out \u201clarge-scale\u201d strikes on Kharg Island, a critical hub of Iran\u2019s Gulf oil operations, with the country responding by threatening to strike U.S. allies\u2019 oil facilities if any of its infrastructure is damaged.U.S. Central Command said Saturday that naval mine storage facilities and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":204117,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-204116","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-us","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}