Mitsubishi buys Louisiana, Texas shale gas assets for $7.5B

(The Center Square) – The second largest natural gas producer in northwest Louisiana and east Texas has sold its assets to Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi.

Aethon, a Dallas-based company that operates in the prolific Haynesville shale formation, agreed to a deal worth approximately $7.5 billion, according to an announcement on Friday.

Mitsubishi agreed to pay $5.2 billion for Aethon’s equity interests and will assume approximately $2.33 billion in net debt. The company expects the transaction will close in the second quarter of 2026.

Aethon’s Haynesville shale assets currently produce about 2.1 billion cubic feet a day of natural gas, equivalent to about 15 million tons per year of liquefied natural gas, Mitsubishi said in a statement. Mitsubishi expects production from these assets to peak in 2028 at 2.6 billion cubic feet per day, the equivalent to approximately 18 million tons of LNG per year.

Daily gas production in the Haynesville region in early 2026 has averaged about 14.3 billion ...