(Bloomberg) -- TotalEnergies SE will take a $4.1 billion writedown to reflect the uncertain future of its Russian liquefied natural gas project due to sanctions.  

The French energy giant is taking the accounting charge after refusing to exit Russia. Most of its peers, including BP Plc and Exxon Mobil Corp. and Shell Plc, are leaving the country in protest at the Kremlin’s military aggression in Ukraine. 

“New sanctions have effectively been adopted by the European authorities, notably prohibiting export from European Union countries of goods and technology for use in the liquefaction of natural gas benefitting a Russian company,” TotalEnergies, which is based near Paris, said in a statement on Wednesday. “It appears that these new prohibitions constitute additional risks on the execution of the Arctic LNG 2 project.”

Major international oil companies are set to take tens of billions of dollars in impairments on Russian assets as they report first-quarter earnings in the coming weeks. The sting of those losses will be offset by the sharp rise in energy prices, potentially driving their combined free cash flow to the highest in 14 years. 

TotalEnergies had $13.7 billion of capital employed in Russia at the end of last year, about 10% of its total capital employed for 2021. That was mostly through its 19.4% stake in liquefied natural gas producer Novatek PJSC, as well as interests in the Yamal LNG plant and the Arctic LNG 2 project.

To protest against President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, TotalEnergies said last month that it won’t make any new investments in Russia. It’s trading division has also stopped handling Russian oil and gas, and the rest of the company will halt purchases of crude and other oil products from the country by the end the year. 

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