Tokyo Gas secured a two-decade agreement to buy 1 million metric tons of liquefied natural gas annually from Venture Global starting in 2030, joining a wave of Japanese buyers turning to American suppliers despite the US exporter’s ongoing legal battles.
The deal was announced Wednesday, marking Venture Global’s fourth long-term contract with a Japanese company. The Arlington, Virginia-based producer has signed agreements totaling 7.75 million tons per year over the past six months, according to its statement.
The timing raises questions about contract reliability. BP prevailed in an ICC arbitration in September 2025, where the tribunal found that Venture Global had violated its SPA and failed to act as a “reasonable and prudent operator,” with a damages hearing in 2026 that could see the company liable for over $1 billion. Venture Global faces as much as $5 billion in liability based on lawsuits from contracted customers of the Calcasieu Pass LNG project in Louisiana.
The Tokyo Gas agreement reflects Japan’s broader strategy to diversify away from Russian supplies while managing US trade pressures. Japan’s long-term contracts with Sakhalin-2 cover about 9-10% of its LNG imports, and the US has urged Japan to phase out Russian energy imports.
Tokyo Gas, Japan’s largest city gas supplier serving around 13 million customers, will procure the LNG under FOB terms without destination restrictions, according to the company’s announcement. The contract provides flexibility for resale—a growing business for Japanese utilities that resold 37% of LNG volumes overseas in fiscal 2023, up from 16% five years ago.
The 2030 start date gives Venture Global time to resolve its legal disputes before deliveries begin, though CEO Mike Sabel said remaining arbitration cases could take years to conclude.
