French Big Oil major TotalEnergies is considering a divestment from some wind and solar power assets in Asia to reduce its debt load, Bloomberg reported today, citing unnamed sources.
A potential sale could fetch several hundred million dollars, the sources told the publication. TotalEnergies is currently gauging potential buyer interest with advisers, they also said. A sale, however, was not guaranteed.
The French company has wind and solar assets in Taiwan, South Korea, Indonesia, and Australia. It also has a 19% stake in India’s Adani Green Energy, which it had earlier signaled it might reduce, Bloomberg recalls.
Two months ago, Reuters reported that TotalEnergies planned to sell all of its non-hydrocarbon energy assets except those in Europe, Brazil, and the United States, citing the company’s president of gas, renewables, and power.
It was then that TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanne said he would be “happy to sell” the Adani Green stake, which had cost $2 billion when acquired but was now worth some $8 billion. Meanwhile, the company sold some wind and solar assets in France during the third quarter, along with some shale assets in Argentina, to reduce debt. In the final quarter of the year, TotalEnergies eyes divestments of a total $2 billion.
The news about potential wind and solar divestments follows an earlier report this week about Shell scrapping plans for two offshore wind power projects in the UK, soon after dropping a wind power project in the United States.
Like TotalEnergies, Shell, and BP have shifted focus back to their core oil and gas business. The pivot took place after the energy crisis made energy security and affordability more important than carbon emission reduction, while high interest rates and supply chain issues further reduced already meager returns from clean energy projects and made many new energy ventures uncompetitive.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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