The energy giant announced on Wednesday that it had sold its 20% stake in the Khariaga field, in the Russian Arctic, to the Russian company Zaroubejneft.
The energy giant TotalEnergies announced on Wednesday that it had sold its 20% stake in the Khariaga field, in the Russian Arctic, to the Russian company Zaroubejneft, which had already inherited the role of operator of the site since 2016.
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“This transaction is subject to the agreement of the Russian authorities”
“In line with our principles of action set out on March 22 concerning our disengagement from Russian oil (…), TotalEnergies has agreed to the transfer to Zaroubejneft of the 20% residual interest» that it held in the deposit, indicated the French group in a press release, specifying that «this transaction is subject to the agreement of the Russian authorities“.
No amount has been disclosed for this transaction. The French group is thus completely disengaging from this project, which has produced “more than 20 million tonsof oil since its start-up in 1999 and whichgenerated more than $4 billion in revenue for Russia”, according to the Zaroubejneft website. In 2016, TotalEnergies had already sold part of its stake in the Khariaga field to Zaroubejneft, from 40% to 20%. At the end of April, against the background of the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, the French energy giant announced a “start of withdrawalfrom Russia and depreciated 4.1 billion in assets relating in particular to the Arctic LNG 2 gas project after ceasing to provide funds to the project.
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TotalEnergies had already taken some distance from Russia, a strategic country for it, by announcing in March that it would renounce all purchases of Russian oil, diesel and petroleum products by the end of the year at the latest. He had also announced that he would no longer provide capital for new projects there. However, it has not withdrawn from this country in which it has been established since the beginning of the 1990s, and where it produces 16.6% of its hydrocarbons, and even 30% for gas alone, attracting criticism supporters of a total withdrawal from Russia after the invasion of Moscow’s forces in Ukraine.
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