Overview
- TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanne disclosed Monday that a round trip through the Strait of Hormuz for a Very Large Crude Carrier costs about $20 million, which spreads to roughly $10 per barrel on a ~2 million barrel cargo.
- Producers in the region are offering steep discounts of roughly $30 a barrel versus Brent, which market sources say puts some Iraqi and Qatari barrels near $50–$60 and more than covers the added Hormuz shipping premium.
- The company says crude is still moving 'quietly' through the strait because the large volumes in VLCCs make the discounted trades economically viable while many shipowners accept the route.
- Refined-product exports have largely stopped because product tankers carry far smaller cargoes, creating an equivalent transport surcharge of roughly $50 per barrel that makes shipments uneconomic.
- TotalEnergies reports its trading arm has already captured large gains from these dislocations and the company plans to invest in bypass infrastructure, including expanding the Habshan–Fujairah capacity and partnering on a Baghdad–Syria pipeline, to cut long-term Hormuz exposure.