Natural gas and oil prices have soared for a third day in a row, following comments from an Iranian official that they would "set fire to anyone who tries to pass through" the Strait of Hormuz.

The strait is one of the most crucial waterways for shipping in the Gulf, with approximately 20 percent of the world's liquefied natural gas and 25 percent of seaborne oil passing through it.

Data center operators are increasingly relying on natural gas to meet soaring energy demands, caused by the AI boom.

The threat comes as the conflict between the US, Israel, and Iran reaches its fourth day, leading to gas prices increasing by more than 30 percent and oil rising by more than 5 percent to around $82 a barrel. The conflict has seen repeated attacks by Iran on the Gulf’s energy infrastructure, including a drone strike at Saudi Arabia’s largest oil refining facility.

The conflict has also led to declines across world stock markets, with the UK FTSE 100 index down 2.6 percent, Japan’s Nikkei down 3.1 percent, and South Korea’s Kospi down 7.2 percent.

Price increases could affect the data center market, as more operators have begun to rely on natural gas-fired generation to power their facilities. In addition, with many European countries heavily dependent on natural gas for grid-based power, electricity prices could rise, especially if the conflict persists.

However, for natural gas and oil producers outside of the Gulf, the price increases could lead to a significant windfall. The US is the largest producer of natural gas globally, representing around 20 percent of global supply. Most of the natural gas-powered data center developments currently being planned are based in the US.

The conflict has also seen direct attacks on data centers in the region. Earlier today (March 3), Amazon confirmed that three of its data centers were damaged by Iranian drone strikes in the Middle East.

On Sunday, the company announced outages at its ME-CENTRAL-1 cloud region due to "objects" striking a facility. The company has now confirmed that two data centers in the UAE were directly struck by drones, and a third site in Bahrain was impacted by a "drone strike in close proximity" that damaged the facility.