France’s TotalEnergies, and Belgian green energy corporation, TES, have signed a joint venture of development and operating agreement with Osaka Gas, Toho Gas, and Itochu, granting the Japanese corporations a combined 33.3% stake in the Live Oak venture– a large-scale facility to supply electric natural gas (e-NG) also called e-methane, started by TotalEnergies and TES and recently beneath development in Nebraska, US. Following the agreement, Total- Energies and TES will each keep a 33.35% stake in the venture.
The partners are actually organizing the Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) phase, focused a potential of about 250-MW of electrolysis and 75-ktpa of methanation. The venture, concern to a Final Investment Decision in 2027, is planned to start commercial operations by 2030, with plans to export e-NG to Japan.
Osaka Gas and Toho Gas might be the primary offtakers. This venture allows the Japanese gas majors in attaining their aim of injecting 1% carbon impartial gas (which includes e-NG) into the gas grid by 2030. The agreement builds at the strategic partnership established between TotalEnergies and TES in 2023 to pioneer at scale manufacturing of e-NG. The Live Oak venture will utilize Nebraska’s considerable bio genic CO2 assets, captured from bioethanol plants, and the developing renewable power generation capacity in the US.
e-NG is a synthetic gas formed from renewable hydrogen and CO2 . Chemically identical to conven in 2027, is planned to start commercial operations by 2030, with plans to export e-NG to Japan. Osaka Gas and Toho Gas can be the main offtakers. This venture supports the Japanese gas majors in attaining their aims of injecting 1% carbon neutral gastional natural gas, e-NG can be seamlessly included into existing LNG infrastructure – liquefaction, transport, regasification, and distribution – without any changes to customer equipment.
