The French oil group is the only one among its peers to continue its activity in Russia. He receives income on the sale of gas condensate which, once transformed into kerosene, supplies the Russian planes bombarding Ukraine.
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In Russia, Totalnergies does not only export gas to Europe, as he often explains to justify his presence on site. The French oil giant operates, with its local partner Novatek, a deposit from which are extracted from gas condensates, a liquid hydrocarbon which, once transformed into kerosene, is used to supply Russian combat aircraft engaged in war in Ukraine. The Terneftegaz company, which operates this deposit, is 49 % owned by totalnergies and 51 % by Novatek.
Thanks to the information compiled by the NGO Global Witness and obtained from the financial database Refinitiv, owned by the London Stock Exchange, Le Monde was able to trace the supply chain which leads from the Termokatstovoye gas deposit , in Siberia, up to two military air bases (Morozovskaïa and Malchevo) each housing a squadron of multirôle combat aircraft. These squadrons are accused by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch of having struck the Ukrainian civilian population, in particular the bombing of the Marioupol theater, which would have caused the death of around 600 people, on March 16, 2022. A “ proven war crime “, according to Amnesty International.
In this case, it is still difficult to assign the responsibility of the bombing to a specific crew. Amnesty International investigators argue that “the Russian apparatus most likely to have conducted the attack is a multi-SU-25, SU-30 or Su-34 Multi-SA-34-type combat, which are deployed on neighboring aerodromes “. Most of the bombings on Marioupol (440,000 inhabitants at the start of the invasion) were carried out by combat aircraft based in Morozovskaïa, located 350 kilometers from the target, in the Rostov region. Le Monde has collected several testimonies from survivors of Marioupol saying that she had undergone the bombing of soukhoï planes (whose prefix is su-) which frequently turned in the city of the city.
minimized role
The French group, which publicly condemned the Russian invasion in Ukraine (while omitting to translate this conviction into Russian language on its site Internet), minimizes its role in the exploitation of gas condensate. “Totalnergies is not an operator of the installations of Terneftegaz, which are operated by Novatek staff”, he specifies, adding that he “does not participate in decisions to enhance condensates by Novatek” and has ” No control over its sales. “Is the majority shareholder Novatek alone to make all the decisions with 51 % of the shares of the joint venture? “The majority thresholds depend on the nature of the decisions,” admits totalnergies, de facto de facto being able to block certain decisions.
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