Global Witness statement in response to TotalEnergies, 26 August 2022

Global Witness stands by its reporting, which clearly demonstrates a link between TotalEnergies, its joint ventures and partner companies TerNefteGaz and Novatek, and jet fuel supplied to Russian military air bases.

The facts are as follows:

• TerNefteGaz – a joint venture between Total and Novatek – produces more than 60,000 tonnes of gas condensate each month, which is processed at the Purovsky plant owned by Novatek, a company in which TotalEnergies also has a 19.4% a stake.
• According to Total’s published statement of August 24, “these products are entered into Novatek’s general input stream and are processed and sold together with its other oil and condensate output … represent[ing] 7% of Novatek’s marketed volume.”
• According to a schematic diagram in Novatek’s 2021 annual report (pp. 10–11), more than 20% of the stabilised condensate produced at Purovsky is sold on to the domestic Russian market.
• Commercially available industry data from Refinitiv show regular shipments of stabilised condensate from the Purovsky plant to a refinery in Omsk owned by Gazprom Neft, representing around 8% of the refinery’s feedstock between March and July 2022.
• These deliveries have been followed by shipments of jet fuel from this refinery to Russian Air Force bases near the border with Ukraine. Refinitiv shows that more than 40,000 tonnes of jet fuel were shipped from Omsk to Su-34 bases at Morozovsk and Voronezh between February and July.

This appears to contradict Novatek’s position – reported in Total’s latest statement – according to which “the entirety of stable condensate produced at the Purovsky Plant from the feedstock coming from Novatek’s subsidiaries and affiliates” is sent to the port of Ust-Luga for export.

Despite being approached with these findings by Global Witness on August 3, Total has still not explained how its joint-venture products remain separate from the rest of Novatek’s output...