The French group Totalenergies announced on Monday to AFP that it was withdrawing from a major industrial and automotive lubricants plant, located southwest of Moscow, continuing its gradual withdrawal from the country announced after the Kremlin’s military offensive in Ukraine.
“In line with our business principles established on March 22, Totalenergies has reached an agreement to sell its lubricants plant (industrial, editor’s note) and its subsidiary Totalenergies Marketing Russia to a company created by the Russian branch management team” the group reported. saying.
“The completion of the sale has just been completed following the authorization from the Russian authorities that allows the effective and final implementation of the sale,” it added.
Strong depreciation of assets.
Totalenergies did not want to communicate the amount of the transaction.
A source familiar with the matter told AFP that the factory would resume production in the coming months under a different brand and without incorporating Totalenergies products or technologies.
Inaugurated in October 2018 in the presence of Totalenergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné, this automotive and industrial lubricants plant, located in the Kaluga region, southwest of Moscow, has so far enabled the French group to produce these products locally in Russia for the internal market
The French group thus continues with its “phasing out” of Russian assets “while making sure to continue supplying Europe with LNG” through the Yamal mega-project in the Russian Arctic, a Totalenergies company source told AFP.
According to the Russian news agency TASS, citing the new commercial director of the factory, Iegor Popov, “a new owner was registered on March 2 and the factory will resume “normal operation” from March 15.
Totalenergies continues its activities in the Yamal gas field
When the plant opened in 2018, Totalenergies stated that the site had an initial annual production capacity of 40,000 tons of lubricants, with the possibility of increasing to 70,000 tons.
At the end of April 2022, in the context of the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, Totalenergies announced a “beginning of withdrawal” from Russia, a strategic country for its activities.
In total, during the year 2022, Totalenergies wrote down $15 billion in Russian assets, notably by selling off its activities in the Kharyaga oil field and Termokarstovoye gas field.
The only important exception, Totalenergies is continuing its activities at this stage in the development of the Yamal gas field, a colossal project that is not subject to the European sanctions directed at Moscow.
Source: BFM TV
