Sabetta airport, December 2017. The temperature was -30 °C in Russia's Far North region that day. It's a place that only plays host to very specific travelers: Those headed to one of the world's most spectacular natural gas sites, Yamal LNG, owned by the French company TotalEnergies and its Russian partner Novatek. On the tarmac, buffeted by an icy wind, Novatek boss Leonid Mikhelson warmly welcomed Patrick Pouyanné, the CEO of Total – which had, at the time, not yet been renamed TotalEnergies.

Among the passengers on the company's private jet, seated alongside the oil giant's senior executives, was one traveler unlike the others: Jean-Pierre Chevènement. At the time, the former minister was France's special representative to Russia for economic diplomacy. After Vladimir Putin's inaugural speech, he made his way to the podium, and arranged for the presidents of Total and Russia to meet face-to-face and exchange a few words. Standing a few meters away, the French ambassador to Moscow warmly applauded the project launch – one under US sanctions, and which had mainly been financed by Chinese banks.

This scene illustrates the ambiguities of France's economic diplomacy when it comes to supporting TotalEnergies in its conquest of foreign markets. The highest levels of France's government and one of the country's biggest companies have long maintained a close relationship. This comes at the price of increasingly visible contradictions, at a time when France is claiming to be a champion in the fight against climate change.

To understand the extent to which this "companionship" – the term employed by ambassadors – influences the government's strategic choices, Le Monde interviewed over 40 diplomats, former ministers and directors of the company. All of them have requested anonymity, given their professional duty of confidentiality.

TotalEnergies is a unique company: Present in over 120 countries, it deploys an influence network that is, at times, equivalent to that of the French foreign ministry. It also knows how to recruit the top experts for this task. A large part of Total's international affairs department is run by diplomats or former diplomats. The company itself has estimated that around 30 of the group's 300 managers are former senior civil servants who have held top-level positions. Over the last 10 years, more than 50 former state officials have held executive positions at TotalEnergies, according to Aria, an NGO specializing in investigations on energy and environmental matters.

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