Paris (France) (AFP) – French oil and gas giant TotalEnergies said Thursday its production in the first quarter of the year was expected to have remained stable despite the Middle East war hitting its output in the region.
The war triggered by US and Israeli bombing of Iran at the end of February sent energy prices soaring as transit through the Strait of Hormuz was cut off, stranding a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies. While the conflict shut roughly 15 percent of TotalEnergies’s production, the firm said it was able to compensate by launching production at sites in Brazil and Libya.
It said it had even managed to increase LNG production by 10 percent from the last quarter of 2025. Given the sharp rise in oil prices — the benchmark international oil contract Brent jumped from under $70 per barrel in February to over $100 for much of March — the company said it expected to report improved cash flow and earnings in its first-quarter results on April 29.
Market volatility also provided the company with trading opportunities. In early April, the Financial Times reported that TotalEnergies had made more than a billion dollars by buying up almost all exportable oil cargoes in the Middle East that do not pass through the Strait of Hormuz. The company declined to confirm or deny to AFP it had carried out such a highly unusual operation, saying only that it had to secure supplies for itself as well as its customers.
© 2024 AFP
