Patrick Pouyanné, CEO of TotalEnergies SE, shakes hands with US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum after signing an agreement in Houston, Texas, on March 23, 2026. RONALDO SCHEMIDT / AFP
The United States and TotalEnergies on Monday, March 23 signed an agreement to end the French company's offshore US wind farm projects and redirect those funds towards fossil fuel production, with the US interior secretary saying the deal was worth "nearly $1 billion."
US Interior Secretary Doug Burgum made the announcement at the annual CERAWeek conference in Houston, at an event where he appeared alongside TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné, after which both men signed the agreement.
"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," said Burgum.
Pouyanné welcomed the deal, saying it redirected TotalEnergies's $928 million investment in two wind farm leases off the North Carolina and New York coasts into US natural gas projects, in particular the Rio Grande LNG plant.
