The drop of oil that broke the camel’s back. Two associations have filed a complaint against TotalEnergies in Paris for complicity in war crimes. The French group is accused of having continued to exploit a deposit in Russia, making it possible to manufacture fuel used by Russian planes in the conflict in Ukraine, AFP learned on Friday from a source familiar with the matter.
This complaint was filed Thursday with the national anti-terrorism prosecutor, competent for war crimes, by the association based in France Darwin Climax Coalition and the Ukrainian association Razom we stand, which calls for an embargo on energy imports. Russian fossil. Solicited by AFP, TotalEnergies denounced “outrageous”, “defamatory” and “unfounded” accusations.
The Termokarstovoye deposit, the heart of the matter
The complaint, of which AFP has knowledge, recalls that the group held until September 49% of the joint venture Terneftegaz, which operates the Termokarstovoye deposit, in the Russian Far North. The remaining 51% was held by the Russian group Novatek, in which TotalEnergies is also a 19.4% shareholder.
However, according to an article of World published on August 24, the Termokarstovoie gas field supplied gas condensate to a refinery near Omsk in Siberia, which turned it into fuel. This was then sent to supply Russian planes engaged in the conflict in Ukraine, at least until last July.
According to the plaintiffs, “by continuing to exploit the Termokarstovoye field” after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, launched on February 24, TotalEnergies “contributed to providing the Russian government with the means necessary for the commission of war crimes” in this country.
“Justice can no longer be blind”
“TotalEnergies categorically refutes all of the unfounded allegations of Global Witness, published by the newspaper The world last August,” the band recalled on Friday. The condensates produced by Terneftegaz were “exported abroad”, he defends himself, arguing that they could not be used by the Russian army as fuel for its planes.
“Justice can no longer be blind to the indirect but essential contribution that multinationals bring to the war effort or to the considerable profits that multinationals continue to derive after the invasion of Ukraine”, for their part commented to from AFP the lawyers for the associations, Mes William Bourdon, Vincent Brengarth and Henri Thuilliez.