Sempra Infrastructure Partners with Japanese Consortium for E-Natural Gas Project

Sempra Infrastructure announced today an agreement with a consortium comprised of Tokyo Gas Company, Ltd., Osaka Gas Company, Ltd., Toho Gas Company, Ltd., and Mitsubishi Corporation to participate in the evaluation of a proposed project to produce e-natural gas, a form of carbon recycling, in the U.S. Gulf Coast. According to Sempra, the project could be the first link of an international supply chain of liquified e-natural gas, a synthetic gas produced from renewable hydrogen and carbon dioxide.

The proposed project is anticipated to produce 130,000 tonnes of e-natural gas per year that would be liquified to become e-natural gas via Mitsubishi Corporation’s tolling capacity at the Cameron LNG terminal in Southwest Louisiana and exported to Japan, where the product is commonly referred to as e-methane. The proposed project is anticipated to include the production or procurement of green hydrogen, as well as the construction of facilities to produce the e-natural gas.

“Sempra Infrastructure is excited to bring its essential infrastructure development experience to this collaboration with Tokyo Gas, Osaka Gas, Toho Gas, and Mitsubishi Corporation. The project would allow existing natural gas infrastructure, including the global liquefied natural gas supply chain and the gas distribution systems in nations across the world, to be used as the backbone for the delivery of a long-term, carbon-neutral fuel,” said Justin Bird, CEO of Sempra Infrastructure.

The U.S. Department of Energy and Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry are currently implementing a Memorandum of Cooperation in the field of carbon capture, utilization and storage, conversion and recycling, and carbon dioxide removal. This proposed project would meet many of the objectives in the memorandum and could complement it, should the policy frameworks recognize e-natural gas as a carbon-neutral fuel.