TotalEnergies to Uphold LNG Supply Contracts Amid Qatar Outages
March 27, 2026
TotalEnergies' CEO Patrick Pouyanne said on Thursday that the company made a decision not to declare force majeure to any of its liquefied natural gas customers, and that it would respect all the LNG contracts in terms of price and volume.
Qatar, the world's biggest LNG producer, has declared force majeure on all of its LNG output after being attacked as part of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.
"We said to our customers we will not invoke force majeure and not deliver the gas... We want to be security of supply for our customers," Pouyanne said.
"Yes, we'll miss energy coming from Qatar and Abu Dhabi, but our portfolio is large enough to redirect part of it," he added.
Analysts estimate TotalEnergies takes 5.2 million metric tons per annum (mtpa) from its share of the QatarEnergy LNG trains.
Sources have said Shell, the world's biggest LNG trader, had declared force majeure on cargoes it buys from QatarEnergy and sells on. Analysts estimate Shell takes 6.8 mtpa of Qatari LNG.
Pouyanne also said that the current energy crisis makes renewables more attractive as they are not subject to the volatility from geopolitical instability.
(Reuters - Reporting by Forrest Crellin and Shadia Nasralla; Editing by Susan Fenton)
