TotalEnergies told French newspaper Le Figaro that its traders made a contrarian bullish bet in March, buying around 70 Oman and Murban cargoes, roughly 35 million barrels, after noticing U.S. Navy ships massing around the Persian Gulf in February. The Iran war broke out on February 28, when the United States and Israel launched large airstrikes on Iran.
Total was the sole buyer of Middle East crude in March as the Iran conflict drastically cut supply, helping send the benchmark Dubai price to a record near $170 a barrel. The Financial Times reported the company made more than $1 billion on the trade by using financial instruments such as futures, options and swaps to bet that prices would rise.
The Wall Street Journal reported on May 19 that the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is scrutinizing a surge in oil futures trading that occurred moments before President Donald Trump postponed strikes on Tehran in March, and that the regulator is interested in at least three firms including Total Oil Trading SA. A Total spokesperson said the company is not aware of an investigation and that it has strict compliance rules.
Because Total is a vertically integrated company, CEO Patrick Pouyanne said it was able to take delivery of the oil at the Fujairah terminal in the United Arab Emirates, which sits outside the Gulf and would still have been reachable if Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz. Pouyanne acknowledged the bet could have ended badly if the strait had shut immediately, since the cargoes would have been physically trapped.
The episode underscores how integrated oil majors with their own trading desks, storage and shipping can profit from geopolitical reads that independents cannot match, and it signals heightened regulator attention on oil futures activity around Middle East flashpoints. TotalEnergies reported a 29% jump in first quarter net income last month, driven largely by the March trading around the Hormuz price spike.