French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday that securing Europe’s energy supply requires both de-escalation in the Gulf and the development of routes bypassing the Strait of Hormuz, arguing this would ease pressure on fuel prices for French consumers.
Macron made the comments on social media platform X while hosting Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Al-Zaidi in Paris, the Iraqi leader’s first stop on a European tour that Macron said reflected France’s ability to play a “balancing role” in the region. Macron tied the push for alternative shipping and pipeline routes to broader themes of regional stability, defense cooperation against terrorism, and protecting the purchasing power and security of French citizens.
The remarks follow weeks of French diplomatic activity aimed at reducing Europe’s exposure to Hormuz, one of the world’s most critical oil chokepoints, effectively closed for months following the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran earlier this year. Macron met separately in Paris last month with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to discuss expanding pipeline capacity linking Saudi oilfields to the Red Sea as a bypass option, building on earlier talks in June with Oman’s Sultan Haitham on securing maritime routes through Omani ports facing the Arabian Sea rather than the Gulf itself.
Existing bypass infrastructure — including Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline to the Red Sea and a UAE pipeline running to the Fujairah terminal on the Gulf of Oman — is estimated to be able to divert only a fraction of the roughly 20 million barrels of oil that normally flow through Hormuz each day, underscoring why Macron and other leaders continue pressing for expanded capacity even as fighting elsewhere in the region, including the escalating Houthi-Saudi conflict near Bab el-Mandeb, adds further strain to global shipping routes.
