French energy giant TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanne revealed at an energy conference in Stavanger, Norway, that crude oil shipping activity through the Strait of Hormuz is rapidly recovering, with transportation costs far below earlier market panic expectations. He also noted that energy markets are displaying a rare divergence: the crude market faces a bleak outlook due to surging supply, while refined product markets remain bullish amid tight supply.<\/p>\n
Pouyanne said TotalEnergies is currently one of the largest traders of Iraqi and Qatari crude, with both countries shipping oil through the Strait of Hormuz “very quietly and discreetly” in recent weeks. He noted that the round-trip cost of shipping roughly 2 million barrels of crude via a Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) through the strait is approximately $20 million (about NT$640 million), translating to a shipping premium of only about $10 per barrel (about NT$320).<\/p>\n
“Crude is not being sold at Brent prices, but at $50 or $60 per barrel, because producers are desperate to push crude onto the market,” Pouyanne said. With international oil prices currently around $92 (about NT$2,900), the deep discounts offered by Persian Gulf producers far exceed transportation costs, leaving substantial profit margins for traders and shipowners.<\/p>\n
Shipping data corroborates the rebound in strait activity. Data from the UK Maritime Trade Operations center shows nearly 200 vessels transited the Strait of Hormuz last week, up from 150 the previous week and just 40 two weeks earlier. Maritime intelligence firm Kpler’s data shows that over 80% of tankers over the past two weeks opted for the U.S.-controlled Oman route, quietly “slipping out” of the strait. Kpler’s head of crude analysis, Homayoun Falakshahi, said Iran has at least partially lost control of the strait.<\/p>\n
Since the U.S.-Iran conflict erupted in late February, shipping activity through the Strait of Hormuz had nearly ground to a halt, with pre-war daily transits averaging roughly 125 to 140 vessels. While traffic has not yet fully recovered, it has improved dramatically from the most pessimistic scenarios.<\/p>\n
Pouyanne further explained the reasons behind the crude-versus-refined-products divergence. He noted that refined product shipments use smaller vessels, with per-barrel shipping premiums reaching as high as $50 (about NT$1,600) \u2014 a level he described as “unsustainable.” This also explains why virtually no product tankers are exiting the Strait of Hormuz, further intensifying supply pressure on gasoline and diesel.<\/p>\n
“This has created an extremely strange situation: a shortage of petroleum products, a bearish crude market, and a very bullish products market,” Pouyanne said. Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries have already driven refined product prices significantly higher.<\/p>\n
The pricing strategy of Iraq’s State Organization for Marketing of Oil (SOMO) further corroborates this trend. SOMO reportedly offered discounts of roughly $25 to $30 per barrel for Basrah crude loaded inside the Persian Gulf in August, with Basrah Heavy crude discounted by $29.80 \u2014 far exceeding the roughly $10 per barrel shipping premium through the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n
TotalEnergies’ trading arm Totsa plays a significant role in Middle East crude flows. Market sources indicate Totsa recently sold Iraqi Basrah Medium crude outside the strait at nearly $10 above the Dubai benchmark, helping buyers avoid the security risks of sending vessels into Basrah.<\/p>\n
Financial results also reflect TotalEnergies’ resilience in a volatile market. The company posted second-quarter cash flow of $9.8 billion (about NT$310 billion), adjusted net income of $6 billion (about NT$190 billion), and a debt ratio reduced to 13.1%. The trading division contributed approximately $500 million (about NT$16 billion) in outperformance during the second quarter. The company also authorized a new $1.5 billion (about NT$48 billion) share buyback program, with a quarterly dividend of \u20ac0.90 per share, up 5.9% from 2025.<\/p>\n
However, war risks have not subsided. India’s Reliance Industries recently paid $23 million to $25 million (about NT$730 million to NT$800 million) to charter a VLCC carrying 2 million barrels of Iraqi crude, indicating that insurance costs and tight vessel supply could still rapidly alter shipping economics.<\/p>\n
Pouyanne also revealed that TotalEnergies will continue investing in alternative export routes, including participation in a pipeline project from Baghdad to Syria, as well as investments in Abu Dhabi to double the capacity of the Fujairah pipeline. The existing Abu Dhabi crude pipeline can transport up to 1.8 million barrels per day, and the United Arab Emirates plans to double that export capacity by 2027 to maximize exports outside the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"French energy giant TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanne revealed at an energy conference in Stavanger, Norway, that crude oil…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69380,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12699],"tags":[432,42618,424,13464,423,21734,42617,340,5726],"class_list":["post-69379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-totalenergies","tag-iraq","tag-kpler","tag-oman","tag-patrick-pouyanne","tag-qatar","tag-reliance-industries","tag-somo","tag-strait-of-hormuz","tag-totalenergies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}