Lagos — TotalEnergies has signed settlement agreements with the United States Department of the Interior to relinquish its Carolina Long Bay lease and its New York Bight lease, both awarded in 2022, along with its partners. As a result, TotalEnergies will no longer develop offshore wind projects in the United States.
Under the terms of the settlement, TotalEnergies will recover the lease fees paid and will invest an equal amount in the development of U.S. Gas & Power production and exports.
TotalEnergies’ studies on these leases have shown that offshore wind developments in the United States, unlike those in Europe, are costly and might have a negative impact on power affordability for U.S. consumers. Since other technologies are available to meet the growing demand for electricity in the United States in a more affordable way, TotalEnergies considers there is no need to allocate capital to this technology in the U.S.
Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer of TotalEnergies stated: “TotalEnergies is pleased to sign these settlement agreements with the DOI and to support the Administration’s Energy Policy. 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 United States, in exchange for the reimbursement of the lease fees.
“Furthermore, these agreements, under which we will reinvest the refunded lease fees to finance the construction of the 29 Mt Rio Grande LNG plant and the development of our oil and gas activities, allows us to support the development of U.S. gas production and export. These investments will contribute to supplying Europe with much-needed LNG from the U.S. and provide gas for U.S. data center development. We believe this is a more efficient use of capital in the United States.”
TotalEnergies has also recently signed a Letter of Intent with Glenfarne, lead developer of the Alaska LNG project, for the long-term offtake of 2 million tons per year of liquefied natural gas over 20 years, subject to the project’s final investment decision.
