Total Energies Made Massive Profits off Middle East Oil Chaos

TotalEnergies in March managed to buy almost all oil shipments that did not need to pass through the now-closed Strait of Hormuz, market data shows, enabling the French energy giant to make a massive profit.

The group likely made more than $1 billion in a few weeks off the strategy, the Financial Times reported, a sum in line with estimates from experts reached by AFP.

TotalEnergies did not deny nor confirm the report when contacted by AFP, but explained that it needed to “secure supplies for itself and its customers”, noting that around 15 percent of its global hydrocarbon production is “at a standstill” in the Gulf region.

The US and Zionist entity attacked Iran on February 28, leading Tehran to retaliate by blocking the Strait of Hormuz—a strategic waterway through which around 20 percent of the world’s crude oil usually passes.

With supply blocked and prices soaring, TotalEnergies’ oil trading unit embarked on one of the largest purchasing operations ever undertaken by a single player.

According to public data from S&P Global Energy, TotalEnergies acquired 77 cargoes of crude oil produced in the United Arab Emirates and Oman during March, representing almost all of the 82 worldwide cargoes due for delivery in May.

The Financial Times report cited sources saying the group’s traders bought both physical consignments and financial derivatives, enabling it to make over one billion dollars in profits, a figure that is difficult to verify but which experts consider credible.

“If you assume roughly 70 cargoes at about 500,000 barrels each, that is around 35 million barrels.

Even a $30 to $40 per barrel effective gain across physical and paper positioning gets you into the $1 billion range very quickly,” said Stephen Innes, an analyst at SPI AM and former oil trader.

Adi Imsirovic, a lecturer at Oxford University, said “it is impossible to say but it is entirely possible that they did indeed make that much, or even more,” adding that Total’s purchases may amount to “the biggest position in oil ever—at least in my long trading memory.”