France’s TotalEnergies said Tuesday it had decided to halt all oil and oil-related purchases from Russia by year end at the latest.
“Given the worsening situation in Ukraine and the existence of alternative sources for supplying Europe, 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,” the firm stated.
The group, which has been operating in Russia for three decades, has faced criticism for not pulling out of Russia following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine a month ago.
It added it would be taking further measures given the “worsening of the conflict”.
“TotalEnergies reaffirms its firmest condemnation of Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine, which has tragic consequences for the Ukrainian population and threatens peace in Europe,” the French group said in a lengthy statement.
“To act responsibly, as a European company and in accordance with its values, TotalEnergies has defined clear principles of conduct for managing its Russian related business:
Stressing it does not operate any oil or gas fields or any liquefied natural gas plants in Russia, the group pointed out it is a minority shareholder in several non-state-owned Russian companies.
While confirming initiation of “the gradual suspension of its activities in Russia” the group stressed it would not “reverse the purpose of sanctions against Russia” by abandoning assets as this “would enrich Russian investors, in contradiction with the sanctions’ purpose.”
In an allusion to Europe’s heavy reliance on Russian gas supplies, TotalEnergies stated that “in accordance with the European Union’s decisions to maintain at this stage Russian gas supplies, TotalEnergies continues to supply Europe with liquefied natural gas from the Yamal LNG plant within the framework of long-term contracts that it must honor as long as Europe’s governments consider that Russian gas is necessary.”
In January, TotalEnergies and US partner Chevron said they were pulling out of Myanmar over concerns about human rights abuses following a military coup there last year.