French energy giant TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanne said he will meet Syrian officials on Tuesday to discuss the potential signing of an exploration agreement, speaking to reporters in Damascus.

Pouyanne is visiting Syria as part of a delegation accompanying French President Emmanuel Macron, whose trip was overshadowed by bomb attacks in Damascus on Tuesday.

In May, TotalEnergies signed a memorandum of understanding with the Syrian Petroleum Company to explore an offshore gas and oil block in the Mediterranean. The company has also recently highlighted the potential importance of building pipelines through Syria to transport Iraqi crude as an alternative route to the Strait of Hormuz.

“Syria’s offshore area has never really been explored historically, so we have partnered other companies to look into it. We will discuss it today with our Syrian counterparts to see whether we can move toward a contract,” Pouyanne said.

“Obviously we’d rather find oil than gas, but in the eastern Mediterranean most discoveries so far — in Cyprus and Israel, for example — have been gas,” he added.

Pouyanne also reiterated that Syria has become increasingly significant as a potential transit route for Iraqi oil exports.