Energy developer Glenfarne said on Friday it had signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with Japan’s biggest city gas supplier Tokyo Gas for the offtake of 1 million metric tons per annum (MTPA) of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Alaska LNG project.
Tokyo Gas confirmed that it has signed the LOI, saying that it enables the Japanese LNG buyer, as a strategic partner of Glenfarne, to advance meaningful negotiations regarding the purchase of LNG from the project.
The move marks an advance for the $44 billion Alaska LNG project that has attracted doubts because of its high costs.
Glenfarne is targeting a final investment decision (FID) for the Alaska LNG pipeline in late 2025 and a 2026 FID for the project’s LNG export components.
Since taking a 75% stake and assuming the lead developer role in the Alaska LNG project in March, Glenfarne has lined up preliminary agreements covering more than half of the project’s available third-party offtake capacity.
The preliminary agreements include deals with Japan’s biggest LNG buyer JERA, Taiwan’s CPC, South Korea’s POSCO and Thailand’s PTT, totalling 11 MTPA of the 16 MTPA Glenfarne expects to contract to reach a financial close for the project, the developer said in a statement.
(Reporting by Yuka Obayashi; Editing by Rashmi Aich)