Page 13 - GLNG Week 40 2022

GLNG EUROPE GLNG

TotalEnergies pledges

increased investment as it

shifts away from Russia

INVESTMENT FRANCE’S TotalEnergies has announced plans something this year, but I see some complexity
to ramp up investment globally as it seeks to scale month after month,” he said.
down its Russian business, the company’s CEO Ukraine has criticised the dividends as “blood
Patrick Pouyanne said last week. money,” and two advisors to Ukrainian President
TotalEnergies retains its interests in the oper- Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote to TotalEnergies
ational Yamal LNG and under-construction telling it to reject the dividends or spend the
Arctic LNG-2 liquefaction terminals in Russia, funds on Ukrainian reconstruction, according to
even though it has sold off some smaller assets. a report by the Wall Street Journal in September.
The company has not specifically said it would For its part, the French government has told
sell its remaining operations in the country yet, TotalEnergies to continue receiving gas from
in contrast to peers such as Shell and BP, which Russia for the European market, given the supply
have said they will pull out of Russia completely. crunch that the continent is facing.
Speaking to investors on September 28, TotalEnergies is ramping up investments in
Pouyanne said TotalEnergies had “no future floating LNG (FLNG) terminals to help Europe
with Russia,” while walking them through how find alternatives to Russian gas, and has signed
the company would prioritise higher payouts to new long-term contracts with Qatar and others
shareholders. to secure those alternatives. The company esti-
TotalEnergies will expand its net invest- mates that by 2027 its higher LNG production
ments in oil, gas and renewables over the next will help it replace Russian gas flow. It is targeting
three years, while avoiding any further capital a 40% growth in LNG supply by the end of the
spending in Russia, the oil major said. While decade.
the company has committed to phasing out oil On the back of higher oil and gas prices,
purchases from Russia, it has said it could only TotalEnergies has pledged to provide its inves-
sever its gas supply contracts if Europe were to tors with an extra €1 per share special dividend
introduce sanctions requiring it to do so. in 2022, worth €2.6bn in total, in addition to
The company also continues to receive divi- regular quarterly payments and a share buyback
dends from those Russian assets, but Pouyanne programme.
indicated that might change soon. In addition, its overall capital expenditure
“It is not easy to receive cash. The financial is slated to grow to $14-18bn annually by 2025,
circuits between Russia and the rest of the world compared with a previous target of $13-16bn.
are becoming complex for Western compa- While growing its renewables spending, the
nies. So to be transparent, yes, we have received compa™

Week 40 07•October•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P13