MOSCOW, February 11. /TASS/. TotalEnergies plans to remain the shareholder of the Yamal LNG project in Russia and receive dividends even if the EU ban on Russian gas imports forces it to terminate the contract for liquefied natural gas (LNG) purchases from the plant, CEO Patrick Pouyanne said at a teleconference.
"If we cannot market, we can remain shareholder of Yamal [LNG], which is another issue for us. Because you know, Yamal for us is a source of two businesses: being the shareholder of the company itself, the plant, even if difficult to get some dividends, but it's an activity, and then the marketing part. The sanction only covers today the marketing part. So there is no force majeure, there is no rules which would force us to exit from Yamal," the chief executive said.
TotalEnergies will continue buying LNG from the Russian plant at least in 2026 but will have to terminate the contract in 2027 because of the EU ban. Nevertheless, legal nuances remain concerning the need to sever the gas contract with Russia because it is not completely clear from legislation whether Russian gas imports should only be terminated in the EU or worldwide, Pouyanne noted.
"The way it's written, there is a question mark, is it only import to EU or is it import everywhere in the world? That means, is a European company like TotalEnergies forbidden to manage any Russian energy? The intent was not this one initially what we understood from the text, but the way it's written today, we are obliged to have been engaged with the French Treasury and the EU Commission, to have a clarification, and so I cannot fully answer to your questions. Maybe we'll really have to just give up the marketing of any Russian LNG, and we'll have to obey, obviously," he added.
On January 26, the EU Council finally approved the complete ban on supplies of Russian LNG to the EU since January 1, 2027, and from September 30, 2027 for the Russian pipe gas.