Conflicts fuel TotalEnergies' interest in US oil, gas investments: CEO

TotalEnergies SE is looking to acquire additional upstream natural gas assets in the US but could also go after more liquid hydrocarbons in the country, motivated by the disruption in energy flows since the US-Iran conflict began, CEO Patrick Pouyanne said Sept. 28.

Over the last few years, the French oil major has developed its integrated LNG strategy by acquiring non-operated positions in the Anadarko Basin and Eagle Ford Shale, and the company continues to look for similar gas opportunities, Pouyanne told analysts during a Q&A following TotalEnergies' annual strategy meeting in New York City.

"I continue to believe that it's better to try to be integrated," Pouyanne said in response to a question about TotalEnergies' US upstream strategy.

"Considering the Middle East, I would say, a challenge when you look to geopolitical risks -- in the same way that we moved from Russia to the US for gas, we could move a little more to the US for oil if there are opportunities," Pouyanne said, although he said acquiring in the current environment is too expensive.

Total's US gas position

TotalEnergies is an active operator of upstream gas assets in the Barnett Shale and has non-operated interests in the Eagle Ford and Anadarko.

The company's most recent deal, announced in September 2025, involved the acquisition of a non-operated 49% stake in Continental Resources Inc.'s Anadarko gas assets.

Pouyanne has framed the US upstream gas investments as serving TotalEnergies' integrated LNG strategy. The company has equity and LNG offtake rights in NextDecade Corp.'s Rio Grande LNG export terminal in Texas, as well as Sempra's Energia Costa Azul in Mexico and Cameron LNG in Louisiana.

The logic behind expanding upstream of the LNG plant had always been to control TotalEnergies' exposure to Henry Hub in case of a spike in the benchmark US gas price. Henry Hub has not spiked since the breakout of war in the Middle East, to TotalEnergies' surprise, Pouyanne said Sept. 28.

"You have people who are betting that with increasing exports, LNG exports, you could have an impact on the domestic gas price of Henry Hub," Pouyanne said. "This year, it was completely flat, even a little declining."

US LNG feedgas demand has come in at or near record highs for most of this calendar year, according to S&P Global Energy CERA data. In September, feedgas demand is averaging around 19.5 billion cubic feet/day, up nearly 16% year over year.

Meanwhile, Henry Hub cash prices have averaged less than $3/million British thermal units since the war broke out, which led to major trade disruptions and soaring prices for European and Asian LNG benchmarks, according to data from Platts, part of S&P Global Energy.