Mitsubishi to buy Texas, Louisiana shale gas assets for US$7.5 billion

[TOKYO] Japanese trading house Mitsubishi will buy the US shale production and infrastructure assets of Aethon Energy Management for US$7.5 billion, it said on Friday (Jan 16), in its largest deal yet as it seeks to strengthen its gas supply chain.

If finalised, the deal would give the company a substantial natural gas operation adjacent to the US Gulf Coast, and the energy export facilities being developed there.

Chief executive officer Katsuya Nakanishi said that the assets included one of the largest reserves in the southern US gas-producing region, and offered “high productivity and competitiveness”.

“While capturing the anticipated growth in US domestic gas demand, we aim to ensure a stable energy supply to overseas consumers, including Japan, amid the expected prolongation of the energy transition,” he added.

The transaction includes US$5.2 billion to acquire Aethon’s equity interests and US$2.3 billion of net interest-bearing debt. Aethon will likely repurchase up to a 25 per cent stake in the assets within six months of the deal’s closing, expected in the April to June quarter.

Japanese investment in US energy

The deal is the latest example of a Japanese company investing in the US energy sector.

This comes after Tokyo positioned gas as an important transition fuel even beyond 2050, and the country prepares for a surge in power demand from data centres driven by the artificial intelligence boom.

Mitsubishi is a major global liquefied natural gas (LNG) player across the value chain, from upstream production to trading, marketing and logistics.

It holds stakes in LNG projects in Australia, Canada, Malaysia, Oman, Russia and the US, giving it an equity LNG output of 15 million tonnes a year.

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Aethon, one of the largest privately held US gas producers, focuses on the Haynesville shale formation in Louisiana and East Texas, with an upstream output of 2.1 billion cubic feet a day, equivalent to 15 million tonnes a year of LNG.

The production from the assets is projected to peak at 2.6 billion cubic feet a day in FY2028, while net profit contribution is forecast at 70 billion yen (S$569.9 million) to 80 billion yen in FY2027, Mitsubishi said.

The Japanese company plans to use cash, debt financing and other methods to pay for the deal, a company spokesperson said.

In October, JERA, Japan’s biggest power generator, said it would buy US natural gas assets for US$1.5 billion, and Japan Petroleum Exploration said in December that it would acquire Verdad Resources, which owns US tight oil and gas assets, for US$1.3 billion.

The shares in Mitsubishi extended their decline following the news, settling down 2 per cent against a 0.3 per cent decline in the broader benchmark Japan Nikkei 225 index.

It was reported in June 2025 that Mitsubishi was in talks to acquire the assets of Aethon Energy Management. REUTERS