Total and Russian kerosene

Would TotalEnergies take advantage of the war to maintain its interests in Russia? According to the revelations of Le Monde, the company Terneftegaz, co-owned 49% by the French multinational and 51% by its local partner Novatek, would manufacture the kerosene supplying the Russian military air bases of Morozovskaïa and Malchevo. The squadrons sheltered by them are said to be responsible for the bombardments that took place last March in Mariupol, causing the death of around 600 people. The company formally denies: “A minority shareholder of Terneftegaz, (…) TotalEnergies has neither information on the sales which are made independently by Novatek on the Russian market nor control over its sales.” Be that as it may, while Shell, BP and Eni have all given up their assets in Russia, TotalEnergies remains the only major Western oil group to stay there. And for good reason. Published in March, a note from the T-Lab revealed the extent of TotalEnergies’ strategic interests. While Russian gas represents nearly 30% of its global production, and more than 60% of its production in Europe and Central Asia. Russia is at the heart of the group’s future industrial strategies. The country’s reserves constitute half of TotalEnergies’ development prospects. So what does it matter if the continuation of its activities, in addition to contributing to aggravating the climate crisis, continues to fuel the war.