Tokyo Gas, Japan’s largest gas supplier, expects that by 2030, 50% of its targeted overseas profit will come from its US shale gas and related businesses, including trading and marketing.

The Japanese company bought Rockliff Energy, a Texas-based natural gas producer, in a $2.7bn (Y405.2bn) deal in December and agreed to purchase a 49% stake in ARM Energy Trading, an energy marketing and trading company in North America.

Shinichi Sasayama, president of Tokyo Gas, told Reuters: “Our aim is to create a US gas value chain by linking our projects to increase the value of our investments, rather than seeking profits from individual projects.”

Tokyo Gas has been reshuffling its portfolio to achieve security of supply and decarbonisation, extending its US reach from upstream assets to mid and downstream businesses, while divesting minority stakes in gas projects in Australia.

“We want our US shale and surrounding operations to generate about a half of our overseas profit by 2030,” said Sasayama, as the company seeks to raise overseas profits to Y50bn by 2030, triple its 2019 overseas profits.

The company aims to generate profits of Y200bn by 2030.

Sasayama claimed the current pause enacted in US LNG export permits, enforced by the Biden administration, will have no immediate impact on his company’s gas operations.

He added: “But we can't be optimistic as regulations may become even more stringent... If necessary, we would work with the Japanese Government and others to discuss the issue.” However, he noted that the US market has great growth potential, specifically for the connection of various decarbonisation projects such as renewable energy and synthetic methane.

The company has considered the implications of Donald Trump’s potential re-election as US President in November.

“We had taken that into consideration when buying Rockcliff... but it is hard to imagine Trump puts the brakes on the projects in Texas and Louisiana as they are Republican strongholds,” Sasayama said.