TotalEnergies Eyes Offshore Exploration Deal in Syria

TotalEnergies is moving to advance its offshore ambitions in Syria, with chief executive Patrick Pouyanné signalling during a visit to Damascus that the French supermajor wants to progress from a preliminary understanding towards a firm exploration contract. Speaking to reporters, Pouyanné said the company and its partners intended to hold talks with Syrian officials to establish whether they could take steps towards signing an agreement.

The interest centres on Syria's Mediterranean waters, which Pouyanné described as largely unexplored throughout the country's history. To pursue this frontier acreage, TotalEnergies has aligned with other operators. In May, the company joined QatarEnergy and ConocoPhillips in concluding a Memorandum of Understanding with the state-run Syrian Petroleum Company covering the offshore Block 3 area. That preliminary accord provides for a technical assessment of the block by the partners and sets out a framework for both technical and commercial negotiations on potential exploration work.

Converting the MoU into a binding contract is the current objective. Pouyanné drew a clear distinction between offshore and onshore prospects, indicating that onshore oil and gas operations in Syria remain too risky to be a realistic exploration target for the company at this stage.

Syria has been actively courting international operators as it seeks to rebuild an energy sector battered by more than a decade of conflict. Earlier in the year, Syrian Petroleum Company chief executive Youssef Qablawi told the Financial Times that Damascus expected to award exploration licences to major oil firms, pointing to substantial untapped acreage and gas resources estimated in the trillions of cubic metres. He named US firms Chevron and ConocoPhillips alongside European majors TotalEnergies and Eni as potential participants in reviving the country's hydrocarbon industry.

For Malaysian and Southeast Asian maritime and oil and gas readers, the developments underline how supermajors continue to pursue underexplored offshore frontiers even in politically complex jurisdictions. Should the Syrian discussions advance to a contract and eventual drilling, they would generate demand for seismic surveying, exploration drilling rigs, offshore support vessels and subsea services, areas where regional contractors and vessel operators increasingly compete internationally. The renewed opening of Syria's acreage also reflects a wider trend of post-conflict states inviting international investment, a signal worth monitoring for players weighing where future offshore campaigns and service opportunities may emerge.