The French company claimed to AFP that these are “outrageous”, “defamatory” and “baseless” accusations.
Complaint for complicity in war crimes was filed in Paris against TotalEnergies, which is accused of continuing to exploit a field in Russia and allowing the production of fuel that was eventually used by Russian planes involved in the conflict in Ukraine, which the group disputes.
The lawsuit was filed yesterday, Thursday, with France’s anti-terrorist prosecutor’s office, which is responsible for war crimes, by the Bordeaux-based Darwin Climax Coalition, which says it works to protect human rights and defend populations affected by industry, and by the Ukrainian association Razom we stand, which calls for an embargo on fossil fuel imports from Russia.
The giant French company claimed to AFP that it is about accusations of “outrageous“, “defamatory” and “unfounded”.
In the lawsuit, which Agence France-Presse learned from, it is recalled that TotalEnergies held until September 49% of the Terneftegaz joint venture, which exploits the Termokarstovoye field, in the Russian Great North. The remaining 51% was held by the Russian group Novatec, the second largest gas producer in Russia, of which TotalEnergies is also a 19.4% shareholder.
But according to an article published on August 24 by Le Monde newspaper based on documents and an investigation by the non-governmental organization Global Witness, the Thermokarstovoye gas field supplied natural gas to a refinery near Omsk, Siberia, which produced fuel from it that was then sent to fuel Russian planes involved in the conflict in Ukraine, at least until last July.
After the publication of the Monde article, the giant French energy company, already criticized for staying in Russia, had assured that it “does not produce kerosene for the Russian army”. Two days later, it announced that it had agreed on July 18 to give Novatek its 49% stake in Terneftegaz. This sale was finalized in September.
According to the prosecutors, by “continuing to exploit the Termokarstovoye field” after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24, TotalEnergies “contributed to providing the Russian government with the necessary means to commit war crimes” in that country, where the Russian armed forces launched airstrikes against civilians.
“The fuel, necessary for air military operations, thus served Russia indirectly to carry out the bombings against the civilian population, which led to the death of at least 5,587 people and caused the injury of 7,890,” the plaintiffs estimate.
These latter also believe that TotalEnergies could not have been unaware of the strong ties of influence between Novatek and the Russian regime: oligarch Gennady Timchenko, who is close to Vladimir Putin, was forced to leave the group’s board of directors in March, as it was the target of European sanctions. Leonid Mikhelson, general manager of Novatek, is in turn the target of British sanctions.
“TotalEnergies categorically denies all the baseless claims of Global Witness, published last August by the newspaper Le Monde”, the group reminded today, claiming that the unstable gas condensates produced by Terneftegaz had been “exported abroad”. and therefore could not be used by the Russian military as fuel for its planes.
“Being an ‘accomplice in war crimes’ means providing direct assistance to a state or a criminal organization that commits crimes,” TotalEnergies estimates. “These accusations insult the integrity of our teams.”
RES-EMP
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