Macron speaks with Zelensky after Russian invasion in February
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French President Emmanuel Macron has been humiliated as TotalEnergies, a Paris-based energy giant is now facing an anti-terrorism investigation after it was accused of fuelling Russian fighter jets that were used to bomb Ukraine. The company has been accused of “complicity in war crimes” as two associations filed a legal complaint against it. On Thursday, the France-based Darwin Climax Coalition and Ukrainian group Razom We Stand filed a complaint with France’s national anti-terrorist prosecutor, which is responsible for investigating war crime allegations. The company partly owns the Termokarstovoye field in Russia’s far north along with Russian gas firm Novatek, which produces around 600,000 tonnes of gas condensate (similar to crude oil) each month.
According to the NGO Global Witness, this condensate then gets shipped to Russian energy company Gazprom’s Neft refinery in Omsk, where it gets refined into products such as petrol, or jet fuel.
According to reports, hundreds of shipments of jet fuel produced at Omsk have been sent to Russian Air Force bases near Ukraine. Using data gathered from the financial database Refinitiv, French outlet Le Monde traced the supply chain from Termokarstovoye to the two military airbases.
The airbases, called Morozovskaya and Malchevo, each house a squadron of multirole Sukhoi combat aircraft. Since February, jets from these bases have taken part in a number of bombardments of civilian areas, including the horrific Mariupol theatre attack on March 16.
Terneftegaz supplied the gas condensate for the Russian warplanes, and until recently Totalenergies held a 49 percent stake in the company that extracted gas from the Termokarstovoye field.
Following the report by Le Monde, the French said that it had sold its shares in Terneftegaz to Novatek, which is Russia’s second-largest natural gas producer
The oil group denied allegations that any of its condensates were used to fuel Russian fighter jets, adding that Novatek it had confirmed that it had not been supplying Russian forces with jet fuel used to attack Ukraine.
On Friday, the company dismissed said accusations of complicity in war crimes, calling them “outrageous”, “defamatory” and “unfounded”. However, lawyers from the associations involved said it was time for multinational companies to be held to account.
Lawyers William Bourdon, Vincent Brengarth and Henri Thulliez told AFP: “Justice should not be blind when faced with the indirect but essential support of multinationals to the war effort, and to the considerable benefits that they continue to enjoy after the invasion of Ukraine.”
They added: “France cannot in the same breath condemn the invasion, and remain inactive in the face of the behaviours propping it up.”
TotalEnergies, which is the only Western oil company still operating in Russia, stressed that they were only exporting Russian gas, which has not been sanctioned under EU law.
Gas condensates are not considered oil even if they can be converted into products like kerosene. This comes as last week, TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanne announced that his company was no longer investing in new projects in Russia.
However, he added: “We will continue to ship energy from Russia as long as there are no sanctions from Europe on the gas, as we contribute to the security of supply for Europe”.
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Following the Le Monde report in August, Ukraine erupted in fury, with Ukraine’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba saying: “We are grateful to 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. TotalEnergies, pull out of Russia!”
Global Witness added that enough jet fuel to fill the internal tanks of an Su-34 bomber thousands of times over was shipped to the Russian bases between February and July.
While France’s energy giant remains in Russia, other major companies began to pull out months ago. Back in March, Shell pulled out of a joint venture called Sakhalin-2, a huge liquified natural gas project in which the company had a 27.5 percent stake.
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