The Trump administration and TotalEnergies announced on Monday, March 23 that the French group would recover nearly a billion dollars in compensation for the abandonment of its two offshore wind project concessions in the United States, and would instead invest in American gas and oil.
The announcement was made jointly by American minister Doug Burgum and TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné on the first day of the major energy conference CERAWeek in Houston, Texas. The two men signed the agreement on the spot during a press conference.
The agreement is a “win-win”, explained Patrick Pouyanné. TotalEnergies had obtained two offshore wind project concessions (off the coast of New York and North Carolina) for $928 million before Donald Trump returned to the White House, but had put them on hold in late 2024 due to the hostility of the new administration in Washington towards wind power.
The French CEO explained that he chose to innovate and be “pragmatic” by negotiating with the Trump administration, rather than pursuing legal action as other companies involved in more advanced projects have done. TotalEnergies concluded that “offshore wind is not the least expensive method for generating electricity in the United States,” according to Patrick Pouyanné. The French group will recover every dollar and will invest particularly to accelerate liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects in the United States, including the Rio Grande project, he said.
“With this agreement, we allow this big company to redirect these dollars paid to the Treasury towards reliable, secure, and competitively priced production of natural gas and oil,” praised Doug Burgum, US Interior Minister. “This administration believes in energy realities, not climate fantasies,” he added.
