The French TotalEnergies, which had been widely criticized for continuing to do business in Russia, announced on Tuesday that will suspend the purchase of Russian oil during this 2022 due to the war in Ukraine.
“Due to the aggravation of the situation in Ukraine and the existence of alternative sources of supply for Europe, TotalEnergies unilaterally takes the decision to stop closing or renewing contracts for the purchase of Russian oil or oil products,” it said in a statement.
However, TotalEnergies “will continue to supply Europe with liquefied natural gas from the Yamal LNG unit, under long-term contracts that it must respect as long as the governments consider that Russian gas is necessary”.
The multinational expressed that they will “scrupulously follow the current and future European sanctions, whatever the consequences may be for the assets it manages in Russia, while undertakes to progressively suspend its activities in Russia, taking into account the safety of its personnel.
Among these purchase contracts, the one destined to cover the Leuna refinery, in eastern Germany and fed by the Druzhba pipeline from Russia, stands out. This contract was also aimed at supplying diesel to Europe, a “deficit” product (12% of diesel in Europe in 2021 was Russian).
The multinational asserted that it will end “in the shortest time possible” those supply contracts, “at the latest by the end of 2022”. The company pointed out that the import of oil can be done via Poland.
Likewise, TotalEnergies “will mobilize oil products from other continents, specifically the part of the diesel produced by the Satorp refinery in Saudi Arabia”.
This suspension of activities occurs after the French government pressured the energy group, one of the main ones in Europe, to stop operating while the Russian invasion continued.
At the beginning of March, TotalEnergies had taken a first step towards the suspension of activities, announcing that it would not contribute more capital to new projects in Russia, but without mentioning a possible withdrawal from a country in which it obtains between 3% and 5%. % of your worldwide income.
The company denied that it is the main operator in Russia of any oil or gas field or liquefied natural gas unit and recalled that it is a minority shareholder in the large Russian gas projects: Novatek (19.4%), Yamal LNG (20%), Arctic LNG 2 (10%) and TerNefteGaz (49%). He also claimed to be 20% associated with the JV Kharyaga project.
TotalEnergies clarified that there is no point in abandoning those holdings, because even if it does, there will be no negative impact on the functioning of Russian companies.