Tokyo Gas near $4.6B deal to buy Rockcliff Energy as Japan seeks stable gas supply

Tokyo Gas (OTCPK:TKGSF) (OTCPK:TKGSY) is in advanced talks to buy U.S. natural gas producer Rockcliff Energy from P-E firm Quantum Energy Partners in a deal worth ~$4.6B including debt, Reuters reported late Tuesday.

The all-cash deal with Houston-based TG Natural Resources, which is 70% owned by the Japanese company, likely will be announced this month, according to the report.

Rockcliff produces more than 1B cf/day of natural gas from the Haynesville shale formation in Louisiana and east Texas, triple the 330M cf/day of gas produced by TG Natural Resources as of June 2022.

Japan is seeking to diversify from Russia’s Sakhalin project, which accounts for 9% of Japan’s total liquefied natural gas imports of 74.3M metric tons/year.

Top Japanese gas producer Inpex (OTCPK:IPXHY) (OTCPK:IPXHF) signed a 20-year deal last week to procure 1M metric tons/year of LNG from Venture Global’s planned CP2 LNG project in Louisiana.