Total stops buying Novatek shares after MH17 shot down

French oil major Total stopped buying shares in Russia’s Novatek when a Malaysian airliner was shot down over Ukraine. Total is one of the top foreign investors in Russia but now faces a cloud over its future there since the downing of flight MH17 on July 17 over Ukrainian territory held by pro-Russian rebels worsened the oil-rich country’s relations with the West and raised the threat of deeper sanctions.

The oil company had forecast in April that Russia would become its biggest source of oil and gas by 2020 thanks to its partnership with Novatek and their Yamal LNG project in Siberia.

Patrick de La Chevardiere, chief financial officer of Total said “we stopped buying shares in Novatek the day of the plane accident, considering all the uncertainties that this event could lead to.”

At the end of June, Total owned 18 percent of Novatek, which has seen one of its shareholders hit by U.S. sanctions. Total bought a 12 percent stake in Russia’s second-largest natural gas producer for $4 billion in 2011 with an option to increase its holding to 19.4 percent within three years.

De La Chevardiere said Total was not doing business with people on the US and EU sanction lists, although he said he had yet to see the EU’s latest list of measures against Russian oil companies, banks and defence firms over Moscow’s support for rebels in eastern Ukraine.