CERAWEEK: US to refund $1 bil to TotalEnergies in deal to drop offshore wind lease

TotalEnergies will cancel its US-based offshore wind projects and invest approximately $1 billion in fossil fuel development, as part of a March 23 deal with the US Interior Department.

After investing in the fossil fuel infrastructure, including oil, gas and LNG production, the French energy company will receive reimbursements of $1 billion from the US government, reflecting the total cost the company paid for offshore wind leases off the coast of North Carolina and New York in 2022.

The agreement is the latest move from the Trump administration to stymie the development of offshore wind in the US.

"We're partnering with TotalEnergies to unleash nearly $1 billion that was tied up in a lease deposit that was directed towards the prior administration's subsidies that were pushing expensive, weather-dependent offshore wind," US Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said at the CERAWeek by S&P Global conference. "With this agreement, we're allowing this great company to redirect those dollars that have been paid in the Treasury to affordable, reliable and secure oil and natural gas production in the US."

In 2022, Attentive Energy, a joint venture between TotalEnergies and Corio Generation, acquired a lease in the New York Bight area for a payment of $795 million.

New York authorities canceled the results of an offshore wind solicitation in April 2024, affecting TotalEnergies' proposed 1,404-megawatt project in the region. TotalEnergies also acquired an offshore wind lease in the Carolina Long Bay area in June 2022 for approximately $133 million.

In November 2025, after the election of President Donald Trump, TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné indicated that the company would pause the development of its US offshore wind projects, citing the incoming administration's stance on offshore wind energy.

"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," Pouyanné said in a March 23 statement.

As part of the deal, TotalEnergies agreed not to develop any new offshore wind projects in the US. The company develops offshore wind projects in European and Asian markets. Pouyanné said at CERAWeek that the agreement will not affect its non-US offshore wind investments.

"Our decision on US offshore wind, which is to renounce this technology here, does not mean we will renounce in another place," Pouyanné said. "There are different setups."

TotalEnergies will use the proceeds from the refunded leases to finance the construction of the Rio Grande LNG plant in Texas and also to develop conventional oil in the Gulf and shale gas in the US. These investments would support the company's role in supplying Europe with LNG and meeting US data center demand for gas, according to Pouyanné.

Environmental groups criticized the deal, arguing that it will not bring down energy prices and will harm reliability.

"This deal is an outrageous misuse of taxpayer dollars to prevent Americans from having clean, affordable power exactly when they need it most," Ted Kelly, director and lead counsel of US clean energy at the Environmental Defense Fund, said in a statement. "As fossil fuel prices swing wildly from global shocks and extreme weather, the answer is obvious: We should be building more homegrown clean energy with stable costs."