Venture Global inks 20-year LNG supply deal with Japan's Mitsui

Nov 11 (Reuters) - Venture Global VG.N said on Tuesday it signed a long-term agreement with Japanese trading house Mitsui 8031.T to supply 1.0 million tonnes per annum of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Japan, the second-largest LNG importer after China, is seeking stable and flexible energy supplies to support a growing buildout of data centers.

Those facilities are forecast to use as much electricity as 15 million to 18 million households by 2034, driving 60% of Japan's power demand growth, according to Wood Mackenzie analysts.

The agreement is Venture Global's third with a Japanese buyer. It signed a supply deal with JERA in 2023 and inked an agreement with INPEX in 2022.

The move also advances U.S. President Donald Trump's efforts to expand U.S. LNG exports, with the United States already the world's top shipper of the super-chilled fuel, to help domestic producers and improve the trade balance with Japan.

Under the agreement, Mitsui will purchase the fuel from Venture Global for 20 years beginning in 2029.

The announcement came on the same day that Venture Global fell 11% on news that Shell SHEL.L had challenged its arbitration loss to Venture Global, weeks after rival BP BP.L won a similar case worth more than $1 billion.

Both arbitration cases concern Venture Global's VG.N failure to deliver LNG under long-term contracts while selling on the spot market as prices soared after the start of the war in Ukraine.

Shell said in a new filing that, while the bar to challenge arbitration decisions is high, it believes an appeal is justified because Venture Global withheld crucial evidence.

Venture Global has increasingly signed supply deals with global energy companies. So far in 2025, it has secured 6.75 MTPA of long-term contracts.

Over the last week, the U.S. LNG company signed new 20-year supply deals with Spain's Naturgy NTGY.MC and Atlantic-SEE LNG Trade of Greece, adding to recent agreements with Petronas, SEFE Energy and Eni ENI.MI.