War in the Middle East Cuts TotalEnergies Production by 15 Percent

The war in the Middle East has led TotalEnergies to reduce its production. (TotalEnergies doc)

JAKARTA - Conflicts in the Middle East have begun to hit global energy companies. TotalEnergies said its global oil and gas production fell 15 percent after operations in Qatar, Iraq, and the UAE offshore were halted or being halted.

According to Arab News, quoted Tuesday, March 17, the French company said the loss of production was equivalent to about 10 percent of the upstream sector's operating cash flow. This means that not only the production volume is disrupted, but also the flow of money from the company's main business.

TotalEnergies has a large footprint in the region. The company manages or has interests in the SATORP refinery in Saudi Arabia, the Al Shaheen offshore oil field in Qatar, and the Halfaya oil field in Iraq. But in the midst of an ever-widening war, not all assets can remain operational.

Even so, not all operations are paralyzed. The SATORP refinery is said to still operate normally and continue to supply the Saudi domestic market. Land production in the UAE, around 210,000 barrels per day, is also said to have not been affected.

The company also explained that the suspension of LNG production in Qatar did not significantly disrupt its trading business, as most of the country's LNG was marketed by QatarEnergy.

Regarding future prospects, according to the Arab News report, TotalEnergies signaled that its production growth in 2026 would actually come more from outside the Middle East. The company also calculated that a rise in Brent oil prices of US$8 per barrel would be enough to cover the impact of cash flows from assets that are now disrupted.

In Indonesia, the name TotalEnergies is not foreign. In the upstream sector, the company has been present since 1968 through Total E&P Indonesia. In the downstream sector, TotalEnergies operates the lubricant business and 18 gas stations in the Jabodetabek and Bandung areas.