Why does TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanne consider the Strait of Hormuz a 'genuine threat', and what solution does he propose?

Patrick Pouyanne considers the Strait of Hormuz a 'genuine threat' because the ongoing Iran crisis has paralyzed the waterway—through which one-fifth of the world’s oil passes—disrupting global energy flows; in response, he states that 'the only solution' is to invest in pipelines that bypass the strait, calling this 'an absolute priority' for TotalEnergies.

What specific alternative export routes did CEO Pouyanne mention, and what historical precedent did he cite to support their feasibility?

Pouyanne mentioned alternative export routes in Abu Dhabi and Iraq, as well as pipelines through Syria, noting that from Iraq, oil could reach the sea via Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, or alternatively head toward Syria or Turkey; he recalled that Total (then operating as part of the Iraq Petroleum Company) discovered oil in Iraq in 1928 and built an Iraq–Syria pipeline within six years, using the world’s largest tanker at the time to transport oil across the Mediterranean to a refinery in southern France—and concluded, 'If our predecessors did it 100 years ago, I believe we should be capable of doing it again today.'

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TotalEnergies must invest in Gulf pipelines to bypass Hormuz, CEO says

Jun 23, 2026

TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanne called for investing in Gulf pipelines to bypass the Strait of Hormuz due to security threats from the Iran crisis. He proposed alternative land routes via Iraq and Syria to ensure uninterrupted oil exports independent of maritime shipping lanes.

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