TotalEnergies is partnering with several Japanese firms to develop the Live Oak project in Nebraska—a facility to produce electric natural gas (e-NG), synthetic gas produced from renewable hydrogen and CO2, the French supermajor said on Tuesday.
TotalEnergies has signed a Joint Development and Operating Agreement that grants Japanese energy firms Osaka Gas, Toho Gas, and ITOCHU a combined 33% stake in the project, which the French major is developing with TES, a Europe-based green energy company.
Following the agreement, TotalEnergies and TES will each have a 33.35% stake in the project.
The project is subject to a Final Investment Decision in 2027, and in case of a positive investment decision, it is scheduled to begin commercial operations by 2030.
The project is planned to export e-NG to Japan, with Osaka Gas and Toho Gas as the primary offtakers.
This project helps the Japanese gas majors in achieving their goal of injecting 1% carbon neutral gas (such as e-NG) into the gas grid by 2030, the companies said in a joint press release.
The agreement builds on the strategic partnership between TotalEnergies and TES in 2023 to pioneer production of e-NG at scale.
The Live Oak project will use Nebraska’s abundant biogenic CO2 resources, captured from bioethanol plants, and the growing renewable power generation capacity in the United States.
e-NG is chemically identical to conventional natural gas, and can be seamlessly integrated into existing LNG infrastructure—liquefaction, transport, regasification, and distribution—without any alterations to consumer equipment.
TotalEnergies, the biggest exporter of U.S. LNG, also plans to boost investments in conventional American LNG supply and will consider expanding the export projects it is already invested in, the supermajor’s CEO Patrick Pouyanne said earlier this year.
Last year, TotalEnergies announced a deal to buy a 45% stake in dry gas-producing assets owned and operated by Lewis Energy Group in the Eagle Ford basin in Texas, growing its gas production business and boosting its LNG portfolio.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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