TotalEnergies, TES, Osaka Gas, Toho Gas, and ITOCHU have signed a Joint Development and Operating Agreement, granting the Japanese companies a combined 33.3% stake in the Live Oak project — a large-scale facility to produce electric natural gas  also known as e-methane, initiated by TotalEnergies and TES and currently under development in Nebraska, United States. Following the agreement, TotalEnergies and TES will each maintain a 33.35% 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% 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 CO₂ resources, captured from bioethanol plants, and the growing renewable power generation capacity in the United States.

The participation of Osaka Gas, Toho Gas, and ITOCHU (as a coordinator of Japanese companies), underscores their commitment to decarbonization 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 CO₂. 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.