By Jess Jones
TotalEnergies is ramping up investments in a bid to distance itself from Russia.
The French oil giant has “no future with Russia”, said Patrick Pouyanné, chairman and chief executive, in a strategy update presented in New York on Wednesday.
Instead, it will look more to Qatar and the US while escalating their production of liquified natural gas (LNG) by 40 percent over the next seven years.
Progress is already moving in this direction as TotalEnergies became the first foreign investor in Qatar’s North Field South LNG project last week.
This comes amid a scramble to diversify Europe’s energy sources since Russia cut off much of their gas supply via Nord Stream 1 in late August and has scrapped plans to reopen the pipeline.
TotalEnergies previously came under fire for being the last of the big gas and oil companies to exit Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.
It has yet to completely sever ties with Russia and continues to hold multiple assets in Russia and receives dividends from investments in Novatek, a Russian gas producer, and Siberian joint venture, Yamal LNG.
The company announced it would be increasing payout offers to shareholders. The returns could represent 35-40 percent cash of cash flow as of 2022.
It also revealed it is reducing its previous underlying cash flow target of £4.5bn down to £3.6bn by 2026. Pouyanné admitted it was a “little conservative” but said it would have been a challenge to reach £4.5bn while excluding Russia.
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