\u201cIt sets an example which profiteering companies have been only too happy to follow,\u201d the letter said. \u201cThis in turn has undermined the entire Western sanctions regime.\u201d<\/p>\n
A government spokesperson said: \u201cAll government contracts are openly published online, and follow all U.K. sanctions and regulations. Like most U.K. suppliers, TotalEnergies purchases gas from the U.K. domestic open market, where the presence of Russian gas is extremely unlikely.\u201d<\/p>\n
The campaigners\u2019 letter is signed by seven Ukraine-based and pro-Ukrainian groups. It calls on Thomas-Symonds \u2014 the minister with oversight of the government\u2019s procurement body, Crown Commercial Service \u2014\u00a0to disclose all Whitehall contracts with TotalEnergies, commit to ending procurement from suppliers that maintain Russian energy ties, and set out a \u201cclear plan for transitioning government departments to clean, conflict-free energy sources.\u201d<\/p>\n
Iryna\u00a0Ptashnyk, a senior researcher at\u00a0Razom\u00a0We Stand, the Ukrainian campaign group that coordinated the letter, said it was \u201cindefensible\u201d that British taxpayers\u2019 money is flowing to TotalEnergies. \u201cThe U.K. government must urgently show leadership [and] end these contracts,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
TotalEnergies says it only supplies Russian gas to Europe from the Yamal liquefied natural gas complex in Siberia under long-term contractual arrangements, which predate Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and which it cannot break.<\/p>\n
Gas supplied under TotalEnergies Gas & Power\u2019s contracts with the U.K. government is procured on the domestic market, so it is highly unlikely any of it originated in Russia. In line with the U.K.\u2019s ban, the company does not import Russian LNG directly to the U.K.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIt sets an example which profiteering companies have been only too happy to follow,\u201d the letter said. \u201cThis…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232436,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[748,28,2437,6178,35,393,7159,5435,4884,475,807,5443,810,1144,7061,332,2663,712,1201,16,657,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-232435","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-buildings","11":"tag-companies","12":"tag-conflict","13":"tag-energy","14":"tag-england","15":"tag-fossil-fuels","16":"tag-gas","17":"tag-great-britain","18":"tag-imports","19":"tag-keir-starmer","20":"tag-lng","21":"tag-nick-thomas-symonds","22":"tag-northern-ireland","23":"tag-procurement","24":"tag-russia","25":"tag-sanctions","26":"tag-scotland","27":"tag-trade","28":"tag-uk","29":"tag-ukraine","30":"tag-united-kingdom","31":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114784587596783215","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}