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ENERGY

France’s TotalEnergies to sell stake in war-linked Russian gas field

French energy firm TotalEnergies said Friday it was divesting its stake in a Russian gas field that was reported this week to be providing fuel that ends up in Russian fighter jets.

Published: 27 August 2022 11:25 CEST
TotalEnergies logo at La Defense
This file photograph shows the TotalEnergies logo at a charging station in La Defense on the outskirts of Paris. French daily Le Monde this week reported the alleged refining of natural gas condensates from a Russian gas field partly owned by TotalEnergies into jet fuel for fighter-bombers involved in Russia's assault on Ukraine. Photo: Christophe ARCHAMBAULT / AFP

The company said that it had signed a deal on Friday with its local Russian partner Novatek to sell its 49 percent in the Termokarstovoye gas field “on economic terms enabling TotalEnergies to recover the outstanding amounts
invested in the field.”

It said the divestment had been agreed in July and submitted to Russian authorities in early August, with approval coming on August 25.

That was the day after an article appeared in French daily Le Monde reporting the alleged refining of natural gas condensates from Termokarstovoye into jet fuel for fighter-bombers involved in Russia’s assault on Ukraine since February.

TotalEnergies — formerly Total — owns 49 percent of Terneftegaz, the company that extracts gas from the Termokarstovoye field.

The other 51 percent is held by Novatek, in which the French firm also holds a 19.4 percent stake.

TotalEnergies initially said it had no control over the sales of its Russian partner.

On Friday, it said Novatek had denied that its condensates were being refined into Russian military jet fuel.

Instead, they were sent to processing at a refinery whose products are exclusively exported outside Russia, a Novatek statement relayed by the French firm said.

READ ALSO: France’s TotalEnergies accused of supplying fuel to Russian air force

TotalEnergies also said it was considering legal action in a bid to end an “unfounded controversy which is damaging the reputation of the company.”

Clara Gonzales at Greenpeace France said that the Termokarstovoye sale must not be a “smokescreen for the ongoing commercial relations of TotalEnergies in Russia,” and called for it to offload its stake in Novatek which “supplies the Russian army”.

“We are grateful to (French President) Emmanuel Macron and the French people for supporting Ukraine. Against this background, it is a disgrace to France when French companies assist the murder of Ukrainians and the ruining
of our cities,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted Friday. “TotalEnergies, pull out of Russia!”

‘Exclusively exported’ fuel

Le Monde reported Wednesday that condensates from Termokarstovoye were being sent to a refinery that had provided 42,700 tonnes of fuel from February-July sent to airbases hosting Russian planes.

They accounted for more than eight percent of the raw materials received at the refinery in Omsk since the invasion of Ukraine, it added.

Citing data from financial information firm Refinitiv, the newspaper said the jet fuel shipments could be tracked back to the by-products from Termokarstovoye.

Novatek said via TotalEnergies that all condensates from the gas field are “delivered to the Ust-Luga processing complex in the Leningrad region.

“The range of products derived during processing at the Ust-Luga complex includes jet fuel that is exclusively exported outside Russia, and it does not even have the certification to be sold inside the country”.

TotalEnergies is the only major Western energy group to continue its operations in Russia, which accounts for 16.6 percent of its hydrocarbon production and 30 percent of its gas.

Chief executive Patrick Pouyanne had said in March that Russian gas fields exploited by the company’s joint ventures “are going to operate whether I leave or not” and are vital for supplying energy to Europe.

Selling TotalEnergies’ assets at knock-down prices would amount to handing billions to Russian investors, he argued.

But the firm has since announced a partial withdrawal from Russia, including stopping financing the Arctic LNG 2 gas project.

In July, it sold its 20-percent stake in an Arctic oil field to Russia’s Zarubejneft.

READ ALSO: Air-con, ties and lights: How Europe plans to save energy and get through winter without blackouts

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POLITICS

Macron warns ‘mortal’ Europe needs credible defence

French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday warned that Europe faced an existential threat from Russian aggression, calling on the continent to adopt a "credible" defence strategy less dependent on the United States.

Published: 25 April 2024 13:41 CEST
Macron warns 'mortal' Europe needs credible defence

He described Russia’s behaviour after its invasion of Ukraine as “uninhibited” and said it was no longer clear where Moscow’s “limits” lay.

Macron also sounded the alarm on what he described as disrespect of global trade rules by both Russia and China, calling on the European Union to revise its trade policy.

“Our Europe, today, is mortal and it can die,” he said.

“It can die and this depends only on our choices,” Macron said, warning that Europe was “not armed against the risks we face” in a world where the “rules of the game have changed”.

“Over the next decade… the risk is immense of (Europe) being weakened or even relegated,” he added, also pointing to the risk of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon.

Macron returned to the same themes of a speech he gave in September 2017 months after taking office at the same location – the Sorbonne University in Paris – but in a context that seven years on has been turned upside down by Brexit, Covid and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Macron champions the concept of European strategic autonomy in economy and defence, arguing that Europe needs to face crises like Russia’s invasion of Ukraine without relying on the US.

He urged Europe to be more a master of its own destiny, saying in the past it was over-dependent on Russia for energy and Washington for security.

He said the indispensable “sine qua non” for European security was “that Russia does not win the war of aggression in Ukraine”.

“We need to build this strategic concept of a credible European defence for ourselves,” Macron said, adding Europe could not be “a vassal” of the United States.

He said he would ask European partners for proposals in the next months and added that Europe also needed its own capacity in cyberdefence and cybersecurity.

Macron said preference should be given to European suppliers in the purchase of military equipment and backed the idea of a European loan to finance this effort.

Macron also called for a “revision” of EU trade policy to defend European interests, accusing both China and the United States of no longer respecting the rules of global commerce.

“It cannot work if we are the only ones in the world to respect the rules of trade — as they were written up 15 years ago — if the Chinese and the Americans no longer respect them by subsidising critical sectors.”

Macron is, after Brexit and the departure from power of German chancellor Angela Merkel, often seen by commentators as Europe’s number one leader.

But his party is facing embarrassment in June’s European elections, ranking well behind the far-right in opinion polls and even risking coming third behind the Socialists.

The head of the governing party’s list for the elections, the little-known Valerie Hayer, is failing to make an impact, especially in the face of the high-profile 28-year-old Jordan Bardella leading the far right and Raphael Glucksmann emerging as a new star on the left.

Macron made no reference to the elections in his speech, even though analysts say he is clearly seeking to wade into the campaign, with his speech reading as a manifesto for the continent’s future.

“The risk is that Europe will experience a decline and we are already starting to see this despite all our efforts,” he warned.

“We are still too slow and not ambitious enough,” he added, urging a “powerful Europe”, which “is respected”, “ensures its security” and regains “its strategic autonomy”.

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