Japan's top city gas supplier Tokyo Gas 9531.T is looking to add more U.S. natural gas assets, its president said on Monday, as it aims to expand its gas-related businesses in North America after its recent acquisition of a U.S. shale gas producer.
The Japanese company paid $2.7 billion to acquire
Texas-based natural gas producer Rockcliff Energy in December and agreed to
purchase a 49% stake in North American energy marketing and trading firm ARM
Energy Trading in February.
"We would still consider investing in shale gas assets
if we can acquire them at the appropriate price and in a competitive way,"
Tokyo Gas President Shinichi Sasayama told reporters on the sidelines of the
Japan Energy Summit conference in Tokyo.
"But we are not only looking to upstream assets, but
also to surrounding assets such as marketing, trading and storage batteries, so
that we could link them together to build the total value chains," he
said.
In Asia, Tokyo Gas is studying two liquefied natural
gas-to-power projects at Quang Ninh and Thai Binh in Vietnam and hopes to start
commercial operations in late 2027 and in 2029, respectively.
Asked about the timing of a final investment decision,
Sasayama said that was unlikely before the end of the current fiscal year,
which runs through next March.
Tokyo Gas, a major LNG buyer in Asia, has been diversifying
its procurement sources, buying about 13 million metric tons of LNG annually
from 13 projects in four countries.
Though the company still holds a high proportion of
long-term LNG contracts, it is adjusting its portfolio to be more flexible by
including term contracts of various durations and spot procurement, said
Satoshi Tanazawa, the chief executive of Tokyo Gas' energy trading company.
"We are incorporating not only long-term contracts but
also term contracts of 5- or 10-years, as well as spot purchases,"
Tanazawa told Reuters on the sidelines of the conference.
"We aim for a flexible structure to respond to any
major changes in the business environment," he added.