RWE CEO sees no need for writedowns on major US offshore project

DUESSELDORF, Aug 27 (Reuters) - RWE, the world's No. 2 developer of offshore wind, sees no need to write down a 3-gigawatt project in the United States, its CEO said, just days after the U.S. government ordered bigger rival Orsted to stop construction on an advanced site.

The so-called Community Offshore Wind project, which RWE RWEG.DE owns in a 73%-27% ownership split with Britain's National Grid NG.L, has been put on ice and no investment decision has been taken, Markus Krebber told journalists.

Offshore wind has been in the crosshairs of U.S. President Donald Trump, whose administration has taken several steps to halt or prevent construction of projects off the U.S. coast. Trump has described wind turbines as "garbage" in the past.

Over the weekend, the U.S. ordered Denmark's Orsted ORSTED.CO, the offshore wind sector's biggest player, to stop construction on an offshore wind project near Rhode Island.

"We have pulled the plug," Krebber said with regard to Community Offshore Wind, reiterating earlier comments that the construction on the project had not yet started.

Krebber said he therefore saw no need to write down the project, which has a book value of 800 million euro ($937 million). He said that if political opposition persisted against the sector it could become a matter for the courts given lease payments have been made in the past.

"If the investment opportunity is frustrated, then we need to talk about the lease payments," Krebber said.

"It cannot be that the federal government says 'I will allow you to build offshore in my waters, but in return I want payments from you', and then once the payments have been made, it says, 'It's no longer possible'."

Krebber also said RWE had no interest in taking on offshore wind projects in Japan that Mitsubishi 8085.T is withdrawing from.

($1 = 0.8542 euros)