{"id":335839,"date":"2026-02-12T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/noticias\/totalenergies-assumes-operational-control-of-the-zeeland-refinery\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T08:23:49","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T12:23:49","slug":"totalenergies-assumes-operational-control-of-the-zeeland-refinery","status":"publish","type":"noticias","link":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/news\/totalenergies-assumes-operational-control-of-the-zeeland-refinery\/","title":{"rendered":"TotalEnergies assumes operational control of the Zeeland refinery"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In a strategic move in the European energy sector, <strong>TotalEnergies<\/strong> has taken full control of the operations of the <strong>Zeeland refinery<\/strong>, located in the Netherlands. However, the French company has not yet acquired the 45% stake still held by Russian oil company Lukoil. <\/p>\n\n<p>The transaction is part of an existing shareholder agreement, explained Patrick Pouyann\u00e9, CEO of TotalEnergies, who clarified that the Russian stake will remain unchanged until Lukoil manages to sell it.<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Lukoil forced to exit due to sanctions<\/h2>\n\n<p>The pressure on Lukoil comes in the wake of sanctions imposed by the U.S. Treasury Department on the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/news\/usa-oil-production-reopens-in-venezuela\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">U.S. Treasury Department<\/a><\/strong> in October 2023. These measures seek to weaken the Russian economic apparatus as part of the international response to the war in Ukraine. As a direct consequence, Lukoil has initiated the sale of its international assets, the total value of which was initially estimated at <strong>$22 billion<\/strong>.  <\/p>\n\n<p>The 45% stake in the Zeeland refinery was acquired by Lukoil in 2009 for around <strong>$725 million<\/strong>, during a state visit by then Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to the Netherlands. At the time, the deal was seen as a symbol of the strengthening of Russia&#8217;s presence in northwest Europe. <\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A step without government intervention<\/h2>\n\n<p>Despite the geopolitical context, the government of the Netherlands has not intervened in the transaction. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Climate and Green Growth stated that &#8220;this is an internal matter for Total, like any other corporate decision, which did not require any government approval or action.&#8221; The reason is that the refinery itself has not been directly targeted for sanctions.  <\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Boost for TotalEnergies<\/h2>\n\n<p>This step strengthens the position of <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/news\/totalenergies-to-supply-1-gw-of-solar-power-to-google-in-texas-for-15-years\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">TotalEnergies<\/a><\/strong> in the European refining market. The company reported that its refining profits increased <strong>by more than 200% in the last quarter<\/strong>, underscoring the positive financial impact that the direct management of the plant in Zealand could have. <\/p>\n\n<p>While the fate of the Russian stake is being defined, TotalEnergies consolidates its control over the operation of a key infrastructure for fuel supply in Western Europe. The future of the refinery will depend on who will be the buyer of the 45% still owned by Lukoil, which adds an element of uncertainty to the outlook. <\/p>\n\n<p><strong>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/business\/energy\/totalenergies-takes-over-100-zeeland-refinery-co-owner-lukoil-sources-say-2026-02-10\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Reuters<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p><strong>Photo: Shutterstock<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The French oil company fully manages the plant, while Lukoil retains its 45% in the expectation of selling it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10019,"featured_media":335744,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categoria_noticias":[13026,13036],"etiqueta_noticias":[],"class_list":["post-335839","noticias","type-noticias","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","categoria_noticias-energy","categoria_noticias-oil-and-gas"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/noticias\/335839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/noticias"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/noticias"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10019"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/noticias\/335839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"categoria_noticias","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categoria_noticias?post=335839"},{"taxonomy":"etiqueta_noticias","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/etiqueta_noticias?post=335839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}