March 20，2026

Iran has unleashed waves of missile and drone strikes on energy facilities across the Gulf this week, targeting multiple countries in the region. The attacks have sent shockwaves through global energy markets, with Brent crude surging sharply as traders braced for a major supply disruption. Fears of an all-out assault on the Gulf's energy infrastructure briefly pushed prices toward levels not seen in years.

Yet our monitoring of the majority of active oil fields across the region tells a different story: production is holding firm. Beneath the noise of the conflict, the Gulf's core oil machine continues to run and the deals are quietly getting done.

Saudi Arabia's Ghawar Field — the world's largest conventional oil field, responsible for a significant share of the kingdom's entire output — is continuing to operate at normal capacity. So too is the Abqaiq Processing Complex, the critical hub through which the vast majority of Saudi crude passes for stabilisation before export. A disruption at either site would send immediate and severe reverberations through global supply chains. Neither has materialised. In the UAE, the Murban onshore field, one of Abu Dhabi's most productive assets and a cornerstone of ADNOC's output, likewise shows no sign of disruption. Operations there remain consistent with pre-conflict production levels.

The pattern holds across the broader landscape of monitored sites. Where strikes have caused localised damage, the region's upstream production heartland has, so far, remained intact. For markets weighing the true scale of the supply shock, that distinction matters enormously.

The great fields that underpin global supply are, for now, still turning — and that may yet prove the most important check on runaway oil prices.

Findings are derived from continuous spaceborne, AI-driven thermal imaging and emission analysis covering the majority of active oil and gas installations across the Middle East.