Global energy partners collaborate on Nebraska’s Live Oak project to produce e-NG by 2030, supporting Japan’s carbon-neutral gas and decarbonization goals.
TotalEnergies, TES, Osaka Gas, Toho Gas, and ITOCHU have formally entered into a Joint Development and Operating Agreement to advance the Live Oak project, an ambitious initiative focused on producing electric natural gas (e-NG), also referred to as e-methane. This large-scale venture, led initially by TotalEnergies and TES, is currently progressing in the U.S. state of Nebraska. Under the newly signed agreement, the three Japanese participants — Osaka Gas, Toho Gas, and ITOCHU — will jointly hold a 33.3% ownership stake. Meanwhile, TotalEnergies and TES will continue to retain equal shares of 33.35% each, ensuring a balanced tripartite ownership structure among the partners.
The companies are now moving the project into its Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) phase, a vital step in defining the technical specifications, engineering parameters, and overall development plan for the facility. The current design targets an electrolysis capacity of around 250 MW, which will be used to generate renewable hydrogen, and an annual methanation capacity of 75,000 tonnes, enabling the conversion of hydrogen and captured CO2 into e-NG.
A Final Investment Decision (FID) is expected in 2027, after which full-scale construction would begin. If all developments proceed according to schedule, commercial operations are projected to commence by 2030. Once operational, the Live Oak project will produce significant volumes of carbon-neutral synthetic natural gas intended largely for export to Japan, where Osaka Gas and Toho Gas are expected to serve as the main offtakers. These imports will support the companies’ shared national goal of injecting 1% carbon-neutral gas, such as e-NG, into Japan’s gas network by the end of the decade.
This collaboration builds on the foundation laid in 2023, when TotalEnergies and TES established a strategic partnership to promote the large-scale production of e-NG. The Live Oak project is particularly attractive due to Nebraska’s strong availability of biogenic CO2 captured from bioethanol plants, coupled with the expanding renewable electricity capacity in the United States. These factors provide a favorable environment for producing hydrogen via electrolysis and subsequently converting it into synthetic methane.
The involvement of major Japanese energy players — Osaka Gas, Toho Gas, and ITOCHU, which acts as a coordinator for Japan’s participating companies — highlights Japan’s deepening commitment to decarbonization and energy transition. Their participation positions the Live Oak project as one of the most significant ventures aimed at supplying carbon-neutral gas to Japan, marking a major step toward cleaner and more sustainable energy imports.
Electric natural gas (e-NG) itself is a synthetic fuel created by combining renewable hydrogen with CO2. Because its molecular composition mirrors that of traditional natural gas, e-NG can be utilized in existing global LNG infrastructure — including liquefaction, shipping, regasification, and pipeline distribution — without requiring any changes to consumer equipment or energy systems. This compatibility makes e-NG a promising solution for accelerating decarbonization in hard-to-abate sectors while leveraging infrastructure that is already widely in place.
