TotalEnergies deepens ties with India's Adani Green with $444m JV

PARIS (Reuters) -- TotalEnergies will form a joint venture with India's Adani Green Energy in a deal that will see the French oil giant contribute an equity investment of $444 million, it said on Tuesday.

The two companies had formed a joint venture in September 2023 worth $300 million that gave Total "direct access to ownership of assets" contributed by Adani Green -- namely 1.05 gigawatts of wind and solar farms in India, where the bulk of energy requirements are still met by coal.

The new agreement, into which Total pays more money, will see each side hold 50% of another portfolio of 1.15 GW of solar electricity installations, both operational and under construction, Adani Green said in a statement.

The electricity will be sold on the wholesale market and through power purchase agreements signed with the federal government agency, Solar Energy Corporation of India, which TotalEnergies said in a statement would allow it to capitalize on the liberalization of India's power market.

TotalEnergies has described India as a key market to develop both its natural gas and renewable energy businesses.

Searing heat waves and an uptick in economic activity have resulted in India's electricity generation growing at an average of about 8% annually following the pandemic year of 2020-21, outpacing power demand growth in every major global economy.

Total pressed pause on further involvement with Adani early last year, after allegations of improper dealings and use of tax havens published by U.S. short seller Hindenburg Research wiped about $150 billion in value off the shares of parent Adani Group.

But TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanne has defended his company's investments with Adani -- it also has a 37.4% stake in Adani Total Gas and a