The CEO of French oil company TotalEnergies, Patrick Pouyanne, warned that if the blockade in the Strait of Hormuz continues “for another two or three months,” Europe will have supply problems, as is already happening in some Asian countries, reports EFE.

In statements broadcast on Saturday by BFMTV, Pouyanne stressed that “we have already absorbed all the surpluses (from reserves). If the situation continues for another two or three months, we will enter an energy shortage, similar to the one faced by some Asian countries.”

He insists that although these shortage problems have not yet manifested themselves, “we cannot afford for 20% of oil and gas reserves to be inaccessible without serious consequences.”

The TotalEnergies official referred to the virtually total closure of the Strait of Hormuz by Iran, in response to the war launched by the United States and Israel, which, in his opinion, is the problem that must be solved “urgently”, according to Agerpres.

He believes that, given the fact that we cannot give up oil from the Persian Gulf, which is “very cheap”, alternatives to the Strait of Hormuz must be found to bring it to the consumer market.

“The fact that there are not enough exit routes from the Strait of Hormuz is the big problem”, said Pouyanne, advocating for “new pipelines” that would allow this bottleneck to be avoided.

In the context of the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, part of the oil from the Persian Gulf is transported through existing pipelines, which are insufficient.

Saudi Arabia has a pipeline that transports oil from some of its fields to the port of Yanbu, in the Red Sea; The United Arab Emirates also has another that bypasses the strait; from Iraq, some of the oil exits through a pipeline that starts in Kirkuk, in Kurdistan, and reaches the Turkish port of Ceyhan, in the Mediterranean.