The French group TotalEnergies undertakes to stop buying Russian oil and petroleum products. no later than the end of 2022 “. The oil group promises alternative sources to supply Europe. Since the start of the war in Ukraine, the pressure has continued to increase on TotalEnergies, which had condemned ” Russia’s military aggression towards Ukraine but had maintained its activities there.
Most of the Western oil and gas giants, Shell, Exxon Mobil, BP had announced a withdrawal from Russia, TotalEnergies had been trying to save the day for several weeks until the storm subsided. But the criticisms have only piled up: environmental NGOs have stepped up attacks while the candidate Europe Écologie Les Verts (EELV) in the presidential election, Yannick Jadot, has gone so far as to accuse the company of complicity of “ war crime “.
This time, the French oil company therefore gave in and explains in a press release that “ in the face of the escalation of the conflict “, additional measures are taken in order to “ to act responsibly “. TotalEnergies will therefore stop all purchases of Russian petroleum or petroleum products. no later than the end of the year “, even though the European Union has not imposed an embargo on black gold.
While Europe imports 12% of its diesel from Russia, the group thus plans to substitute imports from other continents, in particular from the Saudi refinery Satorp, in which it is a shareholder with Aramco.
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The group will also gradually suspend its activities in Russia, but refuses for the moment to sell its stakes in its gas assets. Even if it won’t bring more capital to the Artic LNG 2 liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant megaproject, whose start-up was previously planned for 2023, it ” continues to supply Europe with LNG from the Yamal LNG plant “, this giant gas liquefaction site in the north of the country which has produced nearly 18 million tonnes of LNG per year since December 2017, or 16.6% of TotalEnergies’ annual gas production in 2020.
For good reason, the company is bound by long-term contracts that it must honor as long as the governments consider that Russian gas is necessary », Specifies TotalEnergies in its press release.
To justify itself, the group highlights the decision of the European Union to maintain, at this stage, the supply of Russian gas, which represents more than 80% of the hydrocarbon production of TotalEnergies in the country, despite the war in Ukraine. In fact, Moscow continues to supply abundant fossil fuels to the Old Continent, which has provided it with nearly 17 billion euros in exchange since the start of the conflict on February 24.
(With AFP)
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