TotalEnergies (TTE) Chief Executive Patrick Pouyanne downplayed the significance of Syria oil and gas exploration in comments on a call with analysts provided by the company on Monday

"We don't have infinite resources, human resources and competency, so we cannot go everywhere," Pouyanne said, according to the transcript of the call. "And now we have this new Namibia. Clearly, I see much more potential of profits in Namibia today than in Syria."

Pouyanne acknowledged that there were teams in Syria assessing the "quality of the rocks," but said that "the stakes are maybe not so high."