A consortium led by TotalEnergies has won a tender to develop and construct a 1.5‑gigawatt offshore wind farm off the coast of Normandy, the largest such project in France to date. Valued at €4.5 billion (about $5.3 billion) excluding grid‑connection costs, the farm is expected to generate six terawatt‑hours of electricity each year—enough to power roughly one million households. The state‑set tariff of €66 per megawatt‑hour reflects a 50 % rise in construction costs. TotalEnergies plans to make a final investment decision in early 2029, with power production slated to begin in 2033. This award marks the company’s first offshore wind project in France, where previous tenders have mainly gone to state‑owned EDF or partially state‑owned Engie. TotalEnergies currently has a gross renewable capacity of 25 GW, of which only 2 GW are in France; this is expected to grow to 4 GW by 2030. The project moves France closer to its target of 45 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2050, a substantial increase from its present 1.5 GW.
In a separate development, Nigeria’s Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has cancelled the sale of TotalEnergies’ 10 % stake in Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC) to Chappal Energies. The transaction, agreed in July 2024 and valued at $860 million, was withdrawn after the parties failed to meet financial commitments, including TotalEnergies’ obligation to pay regulatory fees and fund environmental rehabilitation and future liabilities. The cancellation underscores the complexities of energy deals in Nigeria, where major oil companies have been divesting onshore assets to focus on more profitable operations. Shell, Exxon Mobil, Eni and Equinor have all sold Nigerian assets in recent years. Chappal Energies, which specializes in extracting oil and gas from mature and distressed upstream assets in the Niger Delta, previously purchased Nigerian assets from Equinor for $1.2 billion. The aborted sale highlights the regulatory, financial and environmental challenges that companies must navigate as the energy landscape continues to evolve.
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