TotalEnergies CEO in Syria to discuss signing an exploration contract

French oil major TotalEnergies' Chief Executive Patrick Pouyanne will meet with Syrian counterparts on Tuesday to discuss signing an exploration contract, he told reporters in Damascus.

Pouyanne is in Syria as part of a delegation accompanying French President Emmanuel Macron, whose visit was overshadowed by bomb attacks ⁠in Damascus on Tuesday.

Total signed a memorandum of understanding in May with the Syrian Petroleum Company to explore an offshore block in the Mediterranean. It has also recently spoken about the need to build pipelines through Syria to transport oil from Iraq as an alternative to the Strait of Hormuz in the wake of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.

"Syria's ⁠offshore area has never really been explored historically, so we have partnered other companies to look into it. We will discuss it today with our Syrian counterparts to see whether ⁠we can move toward a contract," Pouyanne said.

"Obviously we'd rather find oil than gas, but in the eastern Mediterranean most ⁠discoveries so far — in Cyprus and Israel, for example — have been gas," he added.

The CEO reiterated that Syria ⁠had gained importance as a transit route for Iraqi oil.


Reuters