New Data: TotalEnergies sources 71% of its LNG into Europe from countries with governments hostile to the EU, putting the region at risk

Paris, France – New research from Oil Change International reveals how French oil giant TotalEnergies, Europe’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) importer, sourced 71% of its recent LNG into Europe from the United States and Russia. Leaders of both the US and Russia have threatened or attacked Europe, and depending on them for energy is a security risk. Europe’s best path to achieving security, affordability, and climate goals is to equitably phase out fossil fuels, accelerate energy efficiency, and transition to renewable energy.

Key findings

Using public shipping data, the report, Total Insecurity: How TotalEnergies’ LNG trade puts France and Europe at risk, finds that:

• Over the past five years, TotalEnergies is responsible for importing three times as much LNG to the European Union (EU) and United Kingdom (UK) as its nearest rival, Shell;
• In 2025, 71% of TotalEnergies’ LNG imports to the EU and UK came from the United States and Russia;
• Europe’s dependence on LNG imports risks European security, energy affordability, and climate goals.

TotalEnergies’ sourcing LNG from countries with governments hostile to the EU is a security risk 

In 2025, 29% of TotalEnergies’s LNG imports to Europe came from Russia and 42% from the United States – while Putin and Trump attack and threaten Europe.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, TotalEnergies has imported more than twice as much Russian LNG to Europe as any other company. While Trump renews his ambition to seize Greenland and escalates trade war threats, TotalEnergies has established contracts to buy more U.S. LNG in 2030 than any other company.

Local renewable energy provides a safer and more resilient alternative, without potentially dangerous dependencies.

The EU can reduce energy prices, but TotalEnergies’ LNG imports threaten affordability

Fossil fuel reliance from any source exposes the EU to volatile, rising prices. Just this year, EU fossil gas prices doubled from January to June. The additional cost of importing fossil fuels since the United States attacked Iran is at least EUR 47 billion. In recent years, EU member governments have spent over EUR 540 billion in emergency measures to shield consumers and businesses from high costs of energy inflation, primarily linked to rising gas prices.

U.S. LNG is already the most expensive for EU buyers, and is projected to become even more expensive. As Europe’s largest LNG importer, with 42% of its LNG imports to the EU and UK coming from the United States last year, TotalEnergies could significantly contribute to exposing European consumers to rising gas and electricity prices.

In contrast, deploying renewable energy and energy efficiency measures under the EU Electrification Action Plan could reduce fossil fuel import bills by EUR 260 billion per year by 2040.

The EU can break free from gas, but TotalEnergies’ LNG imports threaten climate goals

It was in France that all countries signed the Paris Agreement to cap global temperature rise and set the critical 1.5-degree Celsius (ºC) limit. Yet growing LNG imports threaten EU and global climate goals, and the French oil and gas major TotalEnergies is the largest player in these imports.

Current EU climate goals aim to reduce fossil gas demand 18 percent between 2025 and 2030. Achieving existing heat pump, solar, and wind installation targets could cut EU gas demand by 25 percent by 2030.

Yet TotalEnergies is moving in the opposite direction, by:

• aiming to increase its LNG imports to Europe to 20 Mt per year by 2030;
• increasing its fossil gas production;
• locking in long term US LNG export contracts; and
• building new fossil gas power projects.

David Tong, Campaign Manager, Oil Change International, said:
“Depending on LNG imports is a dead end road to high energy prices, high climate pollution, and even higher security risks. TotalEnergies has imported three times as much LNG to Europe than any other company in recent years, and most of that LNG comes from the U.S. and Russia. That makes TotalEnergies’ business model a dead end for Europe. Instead, by phasing out fossil fuels like LNG, Europe can secure reliable, renewable energy supplies – without the human cost of the fossil gas supply chain – and free Europe from the cycle of war-fueled, volatile fossil fuel energy crises.”

Dr Svitlana Romanko, Founder and Executive Director, Razom We Stand, said:
“This report confirms what we’ve long feared: TotalEnergies has imported more Russian LNG into the EU than any other single company since Russia’s full-scale invasion began. Over four years of war, it still holds a 20% stake in Russia’s Yamal LNG project, a stake that funnelled approximately €2.2 billion straight into Putin’s war chest between 2022 and 2024 alone. Every one of those euros helps pay for the missiles and drones hitting our Ukrainian homes, hospitals and power stations every day, and for the families left without heat through brutal winters because of it. Even as a long-overdue EU ban on Russian LNG finally arrives in 2027, regulators have already carved out a loophole letting TotalEnergies keep shipping Yamal gas to buyers outside Europe. European leaders must close that loophole, not open new ones, and cut off every revenue stream funding Russia’s war chest for good.”

Brigitte Alarcon, campaigner at Beyond Fossil Fuels, said:
“TotalEnergies is doubling down on fossil gas, as shown by its recent joint venture with Daniel Kretinsky’s EPH. While these companies cash in, European consumers are left paying the price, with high energy bills and continued dependence on imported fossil fuels.

After a summer that the EU Commission President Von der Leyen herself called a ‘summer of truth’ for climate impacts, Europe needs a return to strong climate action, not more fossil-gas dependence. TotalEnergies and EPH are locking Europe into more gas and LNG, leaving us exposed to volatile global markets and the decisions of leaders like Putin and Trump. Europe’s energy security, economy and climate all depend on breaking this cycle, not deepening it.”

Anna-Lena Rebaud, Chargée de campagne gaz fossile & transition juste (Fossil gas and just transition campaigner) aux Amis de la Terre France said:
“With its strategic positioning in the LNG market, Total is offering a false remedy for a problem it has been perpetuating for years. This in-depth analysis by Oil Change International highlights how, far from just “meeting Europeans’ energy needs,” Total is orchestrating a strategy that perpetuates a costly and harmful dependence on this energy of the past—and thus France’s and Europe’s vulnerability to geopolitical shocks.”

Bastien Cuq, Energy campaigner, Réseau Action Climat said:
France and Europe are heavily dependent on Russian and American oil and gas. This dependence gives those countries powerful leverage. Yet, TotalEnergies claims to be serving French sovereignty even as it actively perpetuates this geopolitical dependence.”

Note to editors:

• Oil Change International shared the report’s key findings with TotalEnergies in advance of publication. While the company did not comment on the data findings, it expressed “general disagreement with several of the report’s assertions,” and said “the report’s claim that TotalEnergies ‘risks French and European energy security, energy affordability, and climate goals’ could not be further from reality.” The company’s response is included in full as an appendix in the report.
• Oil Change International partnered with Data Desk to use the commercial commodity tracking platform Kpler to analyse TotalEnergies’ physical LNG trade and arrive at estimates of its export activity and imports to Europe (EU plus UK) and France over the 2021 to 2025 period.