Total signed a $224M deal to buy Lampiris, the third-largest Belgian supplier of gas and renewable energy to expand its gas and power distribution activities. In December 2016, Total acquired about 23% of Tellurian for an amount of 207 million dollars, to develop an integrated gas project. In 2017, Total announced it would buy Maersk Oil from A.P. Moller-Maersk in a deal expected to close in the first quarter of 2018. In 2018, Total announced it was buying 74% of the French electricity and gas provider Direct Énergie from their main stockholders, for 1.4 billion euros. In 2022, Total announced it had added 4GW to its renewable energy portfolio through the acquisition of the Austin-based company, Core Solar. The following month, Total entered an agreement with GIP to acquire a 50% stake in Clearway, one of the largest renewable energy owners in the United States. As part of the transaction, GIP took a 50% minus one share stake in SunPower. Western Sahara oil exploration In 2001, Total signed a contract for oil-reconnaissance in areas offshore Western Sahara (near Dakhla), with the "Moroccan Office National de Recherches et d’Exploitations Petrolières" (ONAREP). In 2002, Hans Corell (the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs) stated in a letter to the president of the Security Council that whenever the contracts are only for exploration they're not illegal, but if further exploration or exploitation are against the interests and wishes of the people of Western Sahara, they would be in violation of the principles of international law. Finally, Total decided to not renew their license off Western Sahara. Energy Deal with ADNOC In a move to cope with the 2021-2022 global energy crisis, which started with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and aggravated with Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, France’s TotalEnergies and UAE’s ADNOC signed a strategic deal to partner on energy projects “for cooperation in the area of energy supplies”. The deal was secured on the second day of the UAE leader Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan’s visit to Paris in 2022. The visit marked the UAE president’s first overseas state visit since assuming the post earlier that year. The deal was aimed at identifying and targeting potential joint investment projects in the UAE, France, and elsewhere in the sectors of renewables, hydrogen, and nuclear energy, as told by the French government in one of its statements. According to French President Emmanuel Macron’s