TotalEnergies to stop purchasing oil, petroleum products from Russia

By Shweta Desai

PARIS (AA) - French energy giant TotalEnergies said Tuesday that it will stop buying Russian oil and petroleum products by the end of this year as well as suspend activities in the country amid Russia’s war on Ukraine.

The company said it has committed to "act responsibly" and strictly comply with European sanctions with regard to its business in Russia given the worsening situation in Ukraine.

It will now procure oil and gas for European countries from Poland and Saudi Arabia.

"TotalEnergies has unilaterally decided to no longer enter into or renew contracts to purchase Russian oil and petroleum products, in order to halt all its purchases of Russian oil and petroleum products as soon as possible and by the end of 2022 at the latest," it said.

The company will terminate contracts with the Druzhba pipeline from Russia for oil supply to the Leuna refinery in eastern Germany and replace it with oil imports from Poland. For the gasoil shortfall in Europe, it will import petroleum products from the Satorp refinery in Saudi Arabia and other continents.

The company rebuffed accusations of "complicity in war crimes" for continuing projects in Russia and said they were "unfounded."

It clarified that TotalEnergies does not operate any oil and gas fields or any liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants in Russia.

It is, however, a minority shareholder in several non-state-owned Russian companies, including Novatek (19.4%), Yamal LNG (20%), Arctic LNG 2 (10%) and TerNefteGaz (49%), and is a 20% partner in the Kharyaga joint venture operated by Zarubezhneft.

TotalEnergies has now decided to gradually suspend activities in these companies and put on hold business developments for batteries and lubricants.

It will also stop further capital investment for the development of projects in Russia, it said.