Mitsubishi has struck a deal with Aethon to buy assets worth $5.2 billion in Texas and Louisiana in what would be the largest Japanese investment in U.S. natural gas production to date.
According to a Bloomberg report, the deal had been in the making since at least mid-2025 and will bring a windfall for the owners of Aethon. That would be thanks to the bullish outlook for gas, LNG, and specifically U.S. LNG.
The assets that Mitsubishi is acquiring are located in the Haynesville shale formation, close to the LNG plants along the Gulf Coast. More of these are expected to get built over the coming years, as overall demand for natural gas gets a major boost from the tech industry amid what many are calling an AI race.
CNBC reports that in addition to the $5.2-billion in equity, the Japanese company will also take on $2.33 billion in Aethon debt. The report noted a recent deal that another Japanese energy player, JERA, struck last October to buy $1.5 billion worth of assets in Haynesville.
The Haynesville acquisition includes assets currently producing more than 500 million cubic feet of gas per day across 210 square kilometers, with 200 undeveloped drilling locations and established infrastructure for gathering and transportation. JERA plans to double total output to 1 billion cubic feet per day through future investments, leveraging the asset’s proximity to the Gulf Coast’s LNG terminals and data center markets.
“The U.S. gas market is the world’s largest in domestic demand, production, and exports, and further demand growth is expected, driven by rising power needs from AI/data centers,” Mitsubishi said, as quoted by Bloomberg.
The Japanese company already holds a stake in the Cameron LNG facility, selling about 4 million tons of the superchilled fuel annually to buyers in Japan and elsewhere, Mitsubishi says.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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