The Department of the Interior has announced an agreement with TotalEnergies for the company to redirect capital from offshore wind leases toward natural gas projects that will provide energy for Americans.
TotalEnergies has committed to invest approximately $1 billion—the value of its renounced offshore wind leases—in oil and natural gas and LNG production in the United States. Following their new investment, the United States will reimburse the company dollar-for-dollar, up to the amount they paid in lease purchases for offshore wind.
Additionally, in light of the national security concerns, TotalEnergies has pledged not to develop any new offshore wind projects in the United States.
Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum said, “We welcome TotalEnergies’ commitment to developing projects that produce dependable, affordable power to lower Americans’ monthly bills while providing secure U.S. baseload power today—and in the future.”
“TotalEnergies is pleased to sign this 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,” said Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer of TotalEnergies.
For its part, TotalEnergies will invest $928MM, on the following projects in 2026:
- The development of Train 1 to 4 of Rio Grande LNG plant in Texas;
- The development of upstream conventional oil in Gulf of America and of shale gas production.
Following TotalEnergies’ $928 million in investments in affordable, reliable and secure U.S. energy projects, the United States will terminate the following leases and reimburse the company:
- Lease No. OCS-A 0535. The lease is located in Carolina Long Bay area. This lease was fully executed by TotalEnergies Renewables USA, LLC on June 1, 2022, after payment of $133,333,333.
- Lease No. OCS-A 0538. The lease is located in the New York Bight area. The lease was fully executed by Attentive Energy, LLC on May 1, 2022, after payment of $795,000,000.
Nguồn: https://www.renewableenergymagazine.com/wind/us-dept-of-interior-and-totalenergies-agree-20260323