French energy giant TotalEnergies will invest in expanding Abu Dhabi’s Fujairah oil export pipeline to bypass the volatile Strait of Hormuz, Chief Executive Officer Patrick Pouyanné announced Monday.

Speaking at the ONS energy conference in Stavanger, Pouyanné confirmed the company remains committed to expanding its Middle Eastern infrastructure despite ongoing regional conflict involving the U.S., Israel, and Iran.

The move addresses severe supply bottlenecks created by recurring paralysis in the Strait of Hormuz, a maritime chokepoint that historically handles roughly 20 percent of the world’s daily oil consumption.

Alternative transit routes have become a critical priority for global trade as regional security risks destabilize traditional shipping lanes.

"We are today probably the largest trader of oil from Iraq or from Qatar ... and it's clear to me that I need to put a certain amount of equity to invest in an alternative route," Pouyanné told conference attendees.

Central to this strategy is the expansion of Abu Dhabi's critical export network. Known officially as the Habshan-Fujairah pipeline, the existing infrastructure transports crude directly from Abu Dhabi’s inland fields to the port of Fujairah on the Gulf of Oman.

By terminating outside the Persian Gulf, the route allows tankers to load without navigating the vulnerable Strait.

The pipeline currently holds a capacity of 1.8 million barrels per day. Under the expansion plans, United Arab Emirates officials aim to double that throughput by next year. TotalEnergies intends to inject substantial capital to help achieve this operational milestone.

In addition to the UAE project, Pouyanné revealed that TotalEnergies will join a partnership to support a separate overland pipeline project extending from Baghdad, Iraq, to the Syrian coast, further diversifying supply routes across the region.

The planned infrastructure investments mark a strategic push by major Western energy companies to secure supply chains, insulate global markets from geopolitical shocks, and safeguard maritime exports against ongoing conflict in the Middle East.