TotalEnergies sees limited impact on LNG trading activities after Qatar shutdown

TotalEnergies, which is one of the world’s largest LNG players, provided an update on the impact of the Middle East conflict on its activities in a statement issued on Friday.

“The impact of LNG production shutdowns in Qatar on our LNG trading activities is limited (around 2 Mt expected in 2026), as most Qatari LNG is marketed by QatarEnergy,” the company said.

Last year, TotalEnergies sold 43.9 million tonnes of LNG. This marks a 10 percent rise compared to 39.8 million tonnes in 2024.

QatarEnergy stopped producing LNG at its giant Ras Laffan complex on March 2 due to military attacks on its operating facilities.

It declared force majeure to its affected LNG buyers on March 4.

TotalEnergies said in the update that production had been shut down or is in the process of shutting down in Qatar, Iraq, and offshore UAE, representing approximately 15 percent of its total output.

Onshore UAE production (~210 kb/d TotalEnergies share) is not affected by the conflict at this stage, according to the company.

“The Middle East barrels’ CFFO is lower than our portfolio average due to higher taxation, and these 15 percent of our volumes account for approximately 10 percent of opstream cash flow,” the company said.

“Growth of our accretive barrels is expected to come overwhelmingly from outside the Middle East in 2026, meaning that a higher oil price more than offsets the loss of Middle East production: an $8/b increase in the Brent price is enough to offset the expected 2026 CFFO from our Iraq, UAE offshore, and Qatar assets at $60/b,” it said.