The French oil and gas group TotalEnergies will stop purchasing oil and oil products from Russia as soon as possible. The company has been criticized in recent weeks for continuing to maintain business ties with the country that invaded Ukraine in late February. According to TotalEnergies, the deteriorating situation in the Eastern European country is reason enough to no longer conclude new contracts for the purchase of Russian oil.
TotalEnergies expects to get rid of all contracts for Russian oil before the end of this year. The group will continue to buy gas from Russia, which is Europe’s main supplier of natural gas.
The company also has minority interests in several Russian companies. The French do not want to just sell them, because this would favor Russian investors. Western sanctions and Russian legislation make it difficult to sell those shares to parties outside Russia, the company explains on its website. Russian buyers can benefit precisely because they get their hands on the holdings for rock bottom prices.
TotalEnergies owns approximately 20 percent of the LNG project Yamal LNG and natural gas producer Novatek. The French group also collaborates with the latter company within TernefteGaz, a project for the extraction of natural gas condensate. The company also has a 10 percent interest in an LNG project in the far north of Russia. TotalEnergies has decided to stop investing new capital in projects in Russia and to bring back its last three employees who were still in the country.
On Monday, activists smeared TotalEnergies’ Paris headquarters because the company had not yet fully left Russia. Industry peers such as Shell, BP and ExxonMobil had already announced such a departure.
Also read: Belgian companies do not want to leave Russia
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