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French energy major TotalEnergies has accepted the Trump administration’s $928m offer to relinquish two offshore wind leases awarded during the previous administration.
This means the company would be effectively reimbursed for its winning bids for the Attentive Energy project in the New York Bight and the Carolina Long Bay project off North Carolina, both of which were awarded in 2022. As a result, TotalEnergies will no longer develop offshore wind projects in the United States.
Under the terms of the settlement, the recovered lease fees paid will be invested in the development of US gas and power production and exports.
TotalEnergies claimed that offshore wind developments in the United States, unlike those in Europe, are costly and could negatively affect the affordability of power for US consumers.
Since other technologies are available to meet the growing demand for electricity in the United States more affordably, TotalEnergies stated that there was no need to allocate capital to this technology in the US.
The company previously paused the projects after Donald Trump’s 2024 election win, saying it would consider other markets first and might revisit the US afterwards.
“Considering that the development of offshore wind projects is not in the country’s interest, we have decided to renounce offshore wind development in the US, in exchange for the reimbursement of the lease fees,” said Patrick Pouyanné, chairman and CEO of TotalEnergies.
He added that the funds will be reinvested in the construction of the 29m-tonne Rio Grande LNG plant and in the development of the company’s oil and gas activities.
“These investments will contribute to supplying Europe with much-needed LNG from the US and provide gas for US data centre development. We believe this is a more efficient use of capital in the US,” Pouyanné added.
TotalEnergies has recently signed a letter of intent with Glenfarne, the lead developer of the Alaska LNG project, for the long-term offtake of 2 mtpa of LNG over 20 years, subject to the project’s final investment decision.