The CERAweek conference kicked off on Monday, March 10th, in Houston, bringing together the fossil fuel industry and its supporters. The event will feature TotalEnergies\u2019 CEO Patrick Pouyann\u00e9 as a key speaker. Behind its rhetoric as a transition leader, TotalEnergies is among the top-ranked majors for its oil and gas exploration and production and LNG expansion plans (1). Its expansion largely relies on the United States, a strategic axis made possible by financial institutions\u2019 support. On the occasion of CERAWeek, Reclaim Finance calls for an end to the financing of TotalEnergies’ climate-damaging projects.<\/p>\n<\/div>
In a context marked by Donald Trump\u2019s inauguration, his pro-fossil fuel statements, and the lifting of the moratorium on Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) export terminals, gas expansion in the United States is accelerating. New gas fields and export terminals further diminish our chances of limiting global warming to +1.5\u00b0C, as the International Energy Agency\u2019s (IEA) Net Zero Emissions (NZE) scenario projects a path forward without new fossil fuel fields or liquefaction terminals (2). And yet, the French major TotalEnergies is the second-largest major in terms of short-term upstream expansion plans and in LNG export terminal projects (1), with the United States as a cornerstone of its expansion strategy.<\/p>\n<\/div>
The development of new oil and gas projects in the United States is central to TotalEnergies\u2019 expansion strategy. When presenting its 2024 results (3), the company reaffirmed that the US would be one of the pillars of its growth plan. Indeed, the major is increasing its presence in the country by developing new gas fields and betting heavily on LNG.<\/p>\n
Thanks to its numerous expansion projects, TotalEnergies plans to increase its global oil and gas production by 3% per year until 2030. This growth is even more pronounced in the US, where production is expected to rise by 8.3% annually until 2030, surpassing 180,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (4). This acceleration is driven by the development and expansion of gas fields in the Barnett Shale and Eagle Ford shale basins, as well as the Ballymore field in the Gulf of Mexico.<\/p>\n
TotalEnergies also highlights its status as the leading US LNG exporter (5), basing its expansion on two key pillars:<\/p>\n
These new gas fields and LNG terminals (8) have devastating climate consequences, as illustrated by Rio Grande LNG<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>,<\/span><\/span> which, once operational, would be responsible for 191 million tons of CO2e emissions annually (9). Beyond environmental impacts, the project poses serious health risks for local communities and violates the Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) principle, as the Carrizo\/Comecrudo tribe strongly opposes its construction on sacred land (10).<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div> This harmful expansion is enabled by financial institutions, especially European banks. Among the top European bank supporters of TotalEnergies between 2021 and 2023, French banks lead the way, alongside Barclays, Santander, Deutsche Bank, and BBVA.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>A Climate-wrecking expansion made possible by financial institutions<\/h2><\/span>