TotalEnergies buys 20 million stg stake in Morocco-UK energy project

French oil and gas company TotalEnergies said on Wednesday it had bought a minority stake in the Xlinks Morocco-UK Power Project, a move it said would help the company achieve its targets in the coming year.

TotalEnergies said it had acquired a 20 million pound ($25 million) stake. Other investors include Britain's Octopus Energy Group and the Abu Dhabi National Energy Company, which both took part in a development funding round earlier this year.

Vincent Stoquart, TotalEnergies' senior vice-president of renewables, said the project would benefit from the company's "track record in developing large and complex integrated energy projects".

Xlinks plans to transfer solar and wind energy produced in Morocco to Britain via four 3,800 kilometres-long (2,361 miles) high-voltage direct current (HVDC) subsea cables, hoping to offer renewable energy to seven million British households.

The project says it has reached an agreement with Britain's national grid to start transmitting energy by the end of the decade.

($1 = 0.7872 pounds)

Reporting by Victor Goury-LaffontEditing by Mark Potter