Interior Department Announces $200 Billion LNG Supply Agreements With Japan

The deal comes amid expectations of continued American LNG export growth, with three new facilities projected to expand export capacity by about 50 percent.

A liquefied natural gas tanker arrives at a gas storage station in Chiba prefecture, Japan, on April 6, 2009. STR/JIJI Press/AFP via Getty Images

U.S. companies have finalized sales agreements with Japanese power generation giant JERA Co. Inc. for it to purchase up to 5.5 million tons per year of American liquefied natural gas (LNG), the Department of the Interior (DOI) said in a June 11 statement.

The four 20-year agreements, which are projected to “support more than 50,000 U.S. jobs and add more than $200 billion to U.S. GDP according to S&P Global analysis, underscore President Trump’s efforts to unleash American LNG production and the significant role the U.S. LNG industry plays in strengthening the U.S. economy and bolstering global energy security,” the DOI said.

JERA’s deal with NextDecade Corporation, Commonwealth LNG, Sempra Infrastructure, and Cheniere Marketing LLC involves procuring LNG from the U.S. Gulf Coast.

The finalization of the deal was announced by JERA, the U.S. companies, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright.

In a June 12 statement, JERA said the companies offer LNG at competitive prices and with flexible contract terms. The value of these transactions exceeds JERA’s total equity investment in the United States, currently $6 billion.

JERA’s existing operations in the United States include LNG procurement contracts for 3.5 million tons per year with Freeport LNG and Cameron LNG, and a 1 million ton per year agreement with Venture Global CP2.

JERA’s recent decision to buy up to 5.5 million tons of LNG annually from the United States is a “message to the world that American LNG is back thanks to President Trump.”

“We’re leading on the world stage,” Burgum said.

“America is no longer begging for foreign energy—we’re producing it cleaner, smarter, better, and more reliably than the rest of the world.”

Under the Trump administration, several steps have been taken to boost the U.S. energy sector, including supporting LNG exports.

An LNG tanker is guided by tug boats at the Cheniere Sabine Pass LNG export unit in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, on April 14, 2022. Marcy de Luna/Reuters

On Feb. 14, President Donald Trump issued an executive order creating the National Energy Dominance Council. The council is tasked with advising the president on “strategies to achieve energy dominance by improving the processes for permitting, production, generation, distribution, regulation, and transportation across all forms of American energy.”

On May 2, the DOI said it planned to revise an offshore rule from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management that would “massively cut costs and red tape” linked to the current process.

The updated rule will “free up billions of dollars for American producers to use to lease, explore, drill, and produce oil and gas in the Gulf of America while protecting American taxpayers against high-risk decommission liabilities,” the department said.

On May 19, the Trump administration announced it would end a Biden-era pause on LNG export approvals, arguing that higher exports benefit the United States by supporting allies and boosting the domestic economy.

LNG Exports

Last month, the Department of Energy (DOE) said it had made several key findings related to U.S. LNG export capability.

In December 2024, the agency published a study on LNG exports and invited public comment through March 20.

After taking into account the study and public comments, the DOE found that the United States has a “robust natural gas supply that is sufficient to meet growing levels of exports while minimizing impacts to domestic prices.”

Boosting LNG exports was also identified as having “no discernible impact” on global greenhouse gas emissions.

“President Trump was given a mandate to unleash American energy dominance, and that includes U.S. LNG exports,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a May 19 statement. “The facts are clear: expanding America’s LNG exports is good for Americans and good for the world.”

According to a March 27 analysis by the Energy Information Administration (EIA), the United States remained the world’s largest LNG exporter in 2024, exporting 11.9 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of LNG.

In an April 3 analysis, the EIA said it expects American LNG exports to “continue growing, driven by the start-up of three new facilities: Plaquemines LNG (Phases 1 and 2), Corpus Christi LNG Stage 3, and Golden Pass LNG.”

“These facilities have a combined nominal export capacity of 5.3 Bcf/d (up to 6.3 Bcf/d peak capacity) and will expand the existing U.S. LNG export capacity by almost 50 percent once these projects become fully operational,” the agency said.