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Nitrogen+Syngas 399 Jan-Feb 2026

26 January 2026

Synthetic natural gas project for Nebraska

Synthetic natural gas project for Nebraska

A consortium consisting of TotalEnergies, 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 renewable synthetic natural gas, also referred to as e-NG or e-methane, initiated by TES and TotalEnergies and currently under development in Nebraska. Following the agreement, TES and TotalEnergies 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 75,000 t/a 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.

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