TotalEnergies, TES, Osaka Gas, Toho Gas, and ITOCHU have signed a joint development and operating agreement, granting the Japanese companies a combined 33.3 per cent stake in the Live Oak project — a large-scale facility to produce electric natural gas (e-NG) also known as e-methane, initiated by TotalEnergies and TES and currently under development in Nebraska, US.

Following the agreement, TotalEnergies and TES will each maintain a 33.35 per cent stake in the project.

The partners are now preparing the Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) phase, targeting a capacity of approximately 250 MW of electrolysis and 75 ktpa of methanation.

The project, subject to a Final Investment Decision in 2027, is scheduled to begin commercial operations by 2030, with plans to export e-NG to Japan.

Osaka Gas and Toho Gas will be the primary offtakers.

This project helps the Japanese gas majors in achieving their goal of injecting 1 per cent carbon neutral gas (such as e-NG) into the gas grid by 2030.

The agreement builds on the strategic partnership established between TotalEnergies and TES in 2023 to pioneer at scale production of e-NG.

The Live Oak project will leverage Nebraska’s abundant biogenic carbon resources, captured from bioethanol plants, and the growing renewable power generation capacity in the US.

The participation of Osaka Gas, Toho Gas, and ITOCHU (as a coordinator of Japanese companies), underscores their commitment to decarbonisation with the adoption of e-NG and positions Live Oak as the leading project for carbon-neutral gas production for Japan.

e-NG is a synthetic gas produced from renewable hydrogen and carbon.

Chemically identical to conventional natural gas, e-NG can be seamlessly integrated into existing LNG infrastructure—liquefaction, transport, regasification, and distribution—without any alterations to consumer equipment. -TradeArabia News Service