Mitsubishi to Buy Aethon US Gas Assets in $5.2 Billion Deal

Signage outside the Mitsubishi Corp. head office in Tokyo.

Photographer: Takaaki Iwabu/Bloomberg

Mitsubishi Corp. agreed to buy Aethon Energy Management LLC’s US gas and pipeline assets for $5.2 billion, the biggest purchase by a Japanese company in the American shale sector.

The deal will give Mitsubishi gas reserves in the Haynesville shale basin in Texas and Louisiana, within easy reach of the US Gulf Coast, from where the fuel can be liquefied and exported on tankers. The trading house is already a key liquefied natural gas supplier and has a stake in Cameron LNG, a US export facility in Louisiana.