PARIS, Nov 9 (Reuters) – U.S. sanctions against a major Russian liquefied natural gas project in which French oil major TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA) is a shareholder do not appear to pose a big risk to European gas supplies, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told Reuters on Thursday.
Le Maire, who said France was in contact with U.S. authorities over the impact of the new sanctions announced last week, was speaking from Paris to the Reuters NEXT conference in New York.
“As of today it looks that these sanctions do not pose any major risk for European gas supplies,” Le Maire said.
TotalEnergies, which has a direct 10% stake in Arctic LNG 2 and a total interest of 21.5% via its holding in Russian gas firm Novatek, also said last week it was assessing the impact of the U.S. decision on its investments in the project.
As the sanctions were imposed last week, the Office of Foreign Assets Control, part of the U.S. Treasury Department, also issued a general license that authorises the wind down of transactions involving Arctic LNG 2 through Jan. 31, 2024.
Asked if the French oil firm should remain in the venture, Le Maire said it was too early to say.
“We are monitoring the situation and assessing the consequences of the U.S. decision,” he said.
“We are in constant contact with the U.S. authorities on this,” he added.
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Reporting by Leigh Thomas; writing by Silvia Aloisi; editing by Mark Heinrich and Deepa Babington
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