War in Ukraine: accused of supplying kerosene to the Russian air force, Total defends itself

Geoffrey Branger, edited by Laura Laplaud 06:47, August 25, 2022

The war in Ukraine puts the oil giant TotalEnergies in turmoil.

An article in the newspaper

published on Wednesday, accuses the French company of supplying kerosene to the Russian air force engaged in the war.

A heresy for TotalEnergies which is explained in a press release.

And the answer is categorical: they are unfounded allegations, errors, shortcuts, with inaccuracies, speculations and untruths.

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No funding would have been provided

The French oil company strongly refutes these accusations but nevertheless recognizes that it is a 49% minority shareholder in the company Terneftgaz, which actually supplies kerosene to the Russian army, but has no operational role, unlike Novatek, the majority Russian shareholder who would operate this company.

According to TotalEnergies, no financing has been provided to this company since 2015 on the French side and no dividend has been received since the start of the war in Ukraine.

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Total could take legal action

In its article, the newspaper

affirms that kerosene, co-produced by the French tanker, would have been used in particular in the massacre of Mariupol and that the war would have enabled it to reap large profits.

TotalEnergies has announced that it is not ruling out taking legal action to protect its interests and reputation.