MOSCOW, March 6. /TASS/. The French company TotalEnergies has handed over its lubricant production plant in the Kaluga region to the Russian management, Egor Popov, commercial and marketing director of Top Lubricants LLC, the plant’s new owner, told TASS.

"TotalEnergies has transferred the TotalEnergies Marketing Russia division, which ran the plant in Vorsino, to local management. On March 2, a new owner was registered," he said.

Popov specified that TotalEnergies Marketing Russia division has been renamed Top Lubricants LLC. It will produce oils under the Lemarc brand.

He added that already this month the plant will resume the production of oils, which was suspended earlier.

"We are unfreezing production and conducting test work to resume it. From March 15, the plant will return to normal operation," Popov explained. He noted that 90% of the employees will keep their jobs.

Total launched its lubricant plant in 2018. Then it was reported that its capacity was 40,000 tons per year and it could be increased up to 75,000 per year. The investments in the project amounted to $50 million. In March, TotalEnergies announced that it was phasing out operations in Russia, including oil and gas assets (Kharyaga and Termokarstovoye fields), as well as other local businesses that were mothballed in the first half of the year. TotalEnergies and Novatek signed a final agreement on the sale and purchase of a 49% stake the French company held in Terneftegaz.

TotalEnergies is a shareholder of Novatek (19.4%, according to the latest open data), and also has stakes in the joint projects of Yamal LNG (20%) and Arctic LNG-2.