Question 2076 — businesses

Summary

Ms. Aurélie Trouvé questions the Minister of the Economy, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty about the dividends received by TotalEnergies from the exploitation of Russian gas. The press reported in September 2022 that TotalEnergies will receive nearly 500 million euros in dividends for the year 2022 for its shares (19.4%) in the Russian company Novatek. Novatek is de facto controlled by two entrepreneurs dubbed by Vladimir Putin, one, Mr. Timchenko, is even reputed to be a close friend. Novatek specializes in the exploitation of natural gas, which today finds itself at the heart of geopolitical tensions between the EU and Russia. The company operates in particular the Yamal LNG liquefied natural gas (LNG) deposit, on the peninsula of the same name, part of which continues to supply Europe via dozens of LNG tankers. If the situation energy emergency that Europe is going through prevents us from considering the withdrawal of TotalEnergies from Russia in the very short term, the receipt of dividends of an amount boosted by the explosion in gas prices, even though all Europeans are called upon to make sacrifices, is shocking to say the least. How does the minister explain that these transfers are not subject to any sanctions from the EU and that TotalEnergies can freely benefit from capital linked to the power in place in Moscow? It is likely that one of the main shareholders of the holding company holding Novatek, all of whose assets in the EU and the United Kingdom were frozen, formally divested itself of its stakes in the company, in March 2022, to allow the company to operate freely and to avoid the application of sanctions to its associates. Thus the legality of the transaction is not certainly not in question. But his morality, without doubt. At a time when TotalEnergies' profits are exploding, partly fueled by these participations, the company is enriching itself from the war economy, without any ambiguity. It has also decided to redistribute a significant part of its cash flow to its shareholders (2.65 billion euros), five times more than the “gesture” it granted at the pump in France. She asks him what fiscal measures he plans to restore ethics and justice.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

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