Tag: TotalEnergies

Fossil Fuels Shine Light of Hope in Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa still has around 600 million people without electricity access—roughly 85% of the global total lacking power—with progress lagging behind population growth in recent years. Chronic blackouts, reliance on expensive diesel generators or biomass for cooking (causing health issues and deforestation), and limited industrialization keep millions in poverty. Reliable, affordable baseload power is essential for hospitals, schools, factories, refrigeration, and small businesses.

Sub-Saharan Africa still has around 600 million people without electricity access—roughly 85% of the global total lacking power—with progress lagging behind population growth in recent years. Chronic blackouts, reliance on expensive diesel generators or biomass for cooking (causing health issues and deforestation), and limited industrialization keep millions in poverty. Reliable, affordable baseload power is essential for hospitals, schools, factories, refrigeration, and small businesses.

From the CO2 Coalition

By Vijay Jayaraj

My recent conversation on a social media platform with a close friend in Lagos came to an abrupt, silent end. Hours later, he messaged me back with an apology: The phone battery had died, and his neighborhood had been waiting for restoration of electricity service for the better part of the day.

Power interruptions are common for Nigeria’s largest city of more than 13 million people. It took me back to the 1990s in India, where energy production was a chaotic work in progress. Blackouts were a regular feature of our lives. Today, thanks to India’s enthusiastic use of coal, my children do not need candlelight to do homework. Coal-powered plants keep the lights on for 1.4 billion people. Blackouts still occur, but they are an exception.

I want that same simple certainty for African families. For decades, international aid organizations and financial institutions, held hostage by the red tape of the Paris Agreement and net zero fantasies, strangled funding of projects involving fossil fuels. Instead, modest incentives were offered to implement unreliable and expensive wind and solar power.

But the narrative is shifting. A flickering hope of industrial-grade light is appearing across the continent. From West Africa’s natural gas deposits to East Africa’s new pipelines and Southern Africa’s offshore basins, a story of promise is emerging. Africans are refusing to accept permanent impoverishment in the name of climate orthodoxy. They are breaking the shackles of alarmism and choosing abundant hydrocarbons as the only proven path to prosperity.

West Africa’s Energy Renaissance
In West Africa, Ghana secured a fresh $3.5 billion investment to boost oil and gas output. Under the agreements, Jubilee/TEN partners plan to invest $2 billion, while OCTP partners contribute about $1.5 billion. Development will include increased gas supply for power generation.

Senegal has entered a definitive new chapter with Phase 1 of the Greater Tortue Ahmeyim (GTA) project now producing gas. GTA’s resource base supports expansion that can both feed domestic power demand and supply global markets.

Equatorial Guinea Goes Big

In Equatorial Guinea, Malabo and Yaoundé have signed a long-anticipated deal to develop the Yoyo-Yolanda gas fields, which have an estimated 2.5 trillion cubic feet of gas.

Equatorial Guinea also signed an agreement with Italian energy major Eni that will focus on geological analysis and evaluation, setting the stage for a revival in exploration.

The country is preparing for its “EG Ronda” licensing round in April 2026, offering 24 oil and gas blocks to the market and has amended its Hydrocarbon Law to improve fiscal terms, making it clear to the world that Equatorial Guinea is open for extraction of resources.

In Mozambique, the French energy giant TotalEnergies has restarted construction on a massive $20 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) project. Intended to produce over 13 million metric tons of LNG per year, the project could generate up to $35 billion in revenues for the Mozambican state over its lifetime.

In the East, Uganda and Tanzania are advancing negotiations to construct a pipeline for refined petroleum products. This will ensure these two landlocked nations are not held hostage by supply chain disruptions or global price spikes.

Offshore exploration in Namibia’s Orange Basin has identified an estimated 21 billion barrels of light crude, alongside high‑quality gas that could revive long‑stalled plans key to industrial strategies.

North Africa Wakes Up
Perhaps the most striking turnaround is in North Africa. Libya, a country plagued by instability for years, is making a thunderous return to the energy stage. For the first time since 2007, Tripoli has successfully awarded oil and gas exploration blocks to foreign majors like Chevron, Eni, QatarEnergy and Repsol.

Libya aims to boost oil production by 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) to reach 1.6 million by the end of this year, with a target of 2 million bpd by 2030. For Libya, more production means more jobs and foreign exchange to rebuild infrastructure destroyed by conflict. Crude will flow from the Sirte and Murzuq basins, and the benefits will show up as salaries, roads and power lines.

African policymakers now demand domestic processing, negotiate terms that increase local participation and invest in training and supply chains. Climate cultists may label this as heresy. Rational people recognize it as a response to persistent energy poverty.

By embracing their oil and gas reserves, African leaders are not destroying the planet; they are saving their people.

Originally published in Real Clear Energy on April 7, 2026.

Vijay Jayaraj is a Science and Research Associate at the CO2 Coalition, Fairfax, Virginia. He holds an M.S. in environmental sciences from the University of East Anglia and a postgraduate degree in energy management from Robert Gordon University, both in the U.K., and a bachelor’s in engineering from Anna University, India. He served as a research associate with the Changing Oceans Research Unit at University of British Columbia, Canada

Trump’s ‘billion-dollar giveaway’ actually a refund to free us from costly offshore wind

Headlines last week (NY Times, NPR, CNN) screamed that President Donald Trump was handing nearly a billion dollars to a French energy giant to cancel building offshore wind farms. The coverage was classic gotcha journalism — misleading, incomplete, and designed to fit a tired narrative. The real story is far more straightforward and sensible.

From CFACT

By Frank Lasee

Headlines last week (NY Times, NPR, CNN) screamed that President Donald Trump was handing nearly a billion dollars to a French energy giant to cancel building offshore wind farms. The coverage was classic gotcha journalism — misleading, incomplete, and designed to fit a tired narrative. The real story is far more straightforward and sensible.

On March 23, 2026, the Department of the Interior reached a settlement with TotalEnergies. The U.S. government is refunding $928 million — the exact amount the company paid to the Biden administration in 2022 when it won two offshore wind leases off New York/New Jersey and North Carolina.

In return, TotalEnergies will cancel both leases and formally agree not to pursue any new offshore wind projects in the United States. The company will instead redirect that capital into American oil, natural gas, and LNG projects.

This is not corporate welfare. It is a refund of money already paid, exchanged for killing two expensive, unreliable projects before they could burden American ratepayers. And TotalEnergies agreed to keep the money in the U.S. and use it for oil and natural gas. The headline should have read,

“Win-Win — Trump gets French company TotalEnergies to invest a billion dollars on reliable, affordable American energy instead of offshore wind.”

Offshore wind electricity is significantly more costly than natural gas. Recent Levelized Cost of Energy analyses show new offshore wind projects coming in between $100 and $140 per megawatt-hour — 50% to 150% more expensive than electricity from new natural gas combined-cycle plants, which typically deliver power for $60–$80/MWh.

That gap widens dramatically once we account for the real world.

Wind is intermittent. When the wind doesn’t blow, electricity has to come from somewhere else. Atlantic offshore wind blows about half the time, depending on location. That means either building and maintaining expensive battery storage systems or keeping backup natural gas plants on standby. Paying double rarely gets included in the rosy headlines about offshore wind — once for on-demand natural gas and again for part-time offshore wind. That’s expensive.

Trump clearly understands this basic economic reality. Why force massive investments into high-cost, weather-dependent power when unsubsidized natural gas and oil projects deliver cheaper, dispatchable electricity and stronger returns? The only reason for this stupid economic decision is climate ideology. Conventional energy still offers far better profits without the endless stream of taxpayer subsidies required to prop up offshore wind. That’s why moving this near billion dollars to more profitable, unsubsidized American natural gas is a win for the company and the U.S.

They could have taken this investment anywhere in the world, but it is staying here, adding to American energy dominance.

The biggest victory in this deal isn’t the refund itself — it’s the permanent removal of these two leases from the map. TotalEnergies has now committed not to build offshore wind anywhere in the U.S. That is a direct win for reliable, affordable electricity and a clear signal that the era of forcing expensive green mandates is ending.

Even some Democrats are starting to admit the same truth. New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul (because she wants to get re-elected) recently proposed delaying key provisions of the state’s Climate Act. Pushing back greenhouse gas reduction rules and acknowledging that the original timelines had become “costly and unattainable.”

If even deep-blue New York is quietly hitting the brakes, the rest of the country should take note. For years, they have been telling us wind and solar power are cheap and will lower our electric rates. In reality, adding them increases our electric rates — like adding a part-time, unreliable car increases your car payments, maintenance, and insurance costs without replacing your full-time, reliable car.

The mainstream media’s refusal to report this accurately is revealing. Rather than acknowledge a pragmatic decision that protects consumers from higher bills and grid instability, many outlets chose to frame the story as Trump favoring fossil fuels over “green energy” by spending taxpayer dollars buying TotalEnergies out, rather than refunding the fee they paid to sell inflated subsidized, part-time electricity.

In reality, this was a straightforward business transaction: return the lease money, cancel the projects and let the capital flow to energy sources that work.

Reliable, affordable electricity is not a partisan luxury; it is an economic and national security necessity. By refunding the original lease payments and redirecting investment away from expensive offshore wind, the Trump administration delivered a clear win-win for American families, businesses, and energy security.

This article originally appeared  in The Daily Caller

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Frank Lasee

CFACT policy advisor Frank Lasee is an expert on energy and environmental issues. His articles have appeared in the Washington Examiner, Washington Post, Real Clear Energy, Town Hall. He has been a guest on TV and radio news. He is the president of Truth in Energy and Climate. Frank Lasee served as a Wisconsin State Senator and in Governor Scott Walker’s Administration.

TotalEnergies Halts Offshore NY Wind Farm

Offshore report that TotalEnergies have paused development of the 3 GW Attentive Energy wind farm it planned to build off the coast of New York and New Jersey.

Cancelled

From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

By Paul Homewood

h/t Hugh Sharman

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alpha_Ventus_Windmills.JPG

Offshore report that TotalEnergies have paused development of the 3 GW Attentive Energy wind farm it planned to build off the coast of New York and New Jersey.

This follows the election of Trump.

It looks like being the first of many, as Biden’s Green New Deal unravels, with its promise of massive subsidies for renewables.

Full story here.

Labour’s North Sea tax raid will ‘trash oil and gas production’

Labour’s proposed North Sea tax increases would drive out investment, destroy up to 100,000 jobs and cost the Treasury £20bn in lost revenues, energy experts have warned.

Energy experts warn plans to increase windfall taxes will cost far more than they raise.

Labour’s proposed North Sea tax increases would drive out investment, destroy up to 100,000 jobs and cost the Treasury £20bn in lost revenues, energy experts have warned.

Analysis by investment bank Stifel suggests Sir Keir Starmer’s plans to increase and extend windfall taxes on the industry will cost the country far more than they raise. The Telegraph has the story.

A separate report by Welligence, an oil and gas analyst, said key UK offshore operators such as Harbour Energy, the UK’s largest oil and gas producer, and TotalEnergies had already cut back investment and others were now likely to follow.

It follows the launch of Labour’s Green Prosperity Plan last week in the wake of the party’s decision to scrap a pledge to invest £28bn a year in clean energy.

Under the new proposals, Labour hopes to raise an extra £11bn from the UK’s oil and gas industry by increasing and extending the windfall tax, with the funds invested in “clean power to cut bills for families.”

However, Chris Wheaton, an oil and gas analyst with Stifel, warned in a report: “We estimate the UK will lose £20bn in tax revenues, with maybe 100,000 jobs at risk, both directly and indirectly employed, and a £40bn reduction in investment between now and 2030.”

Labour’s proposals for the UK’s oil and gas industry generated little discussion because the media and political focus was on the cancellation of its £28bn green investment pledge.

Sir Keir Starmer has proposed adding 3pc to existing offshore production taxes, slashing investment allowances, banning new drilling licences and extending the windfall tax beyond its current cut-off date of 2028.

Labour said: “Together, these changes would raise £10.8bn over the next five years from 2024-25 to help fund the Green Prosperity Plan.”

However, Mr Wheaton said the overall economic impact would be negative.

He warned: “The uncertainty created by threatening new windfall taxes is as bad as the tax itself. The tax is already forcing cancellation of investments. For example TotalEnergies have cancelled drilling plans at the Elgin and Franklin fields [in the North Sea], and Apache has cancelled investments at its Beryl fields.

Read the full story here.