Japanese conglomerate Toshiba is reportedly looking to shed its US liquefied natural gas business as talks have started with a number of companies from China and the United States. 

The company intends to sell its interest in the Freeport LNG project, which is considered a non-core business as the prices of liquefied natural gas are recovering, Nikkei reports.

The company issued tenders recently and has garnered interest with the sources telling Nikkei that the list of interested buyers includes JERA, Tellurian as well as Chinese state-owned PetroChina.

Toshiba is looking to offload its LNG business as it is considered a financial risk factor. The company’s unit Toshiba America LNG Corp. has failed to find buyers for all of its 2.2 mtpa portion of the Freeport LNG’s total production capacity it has booked under a take-or-pay liquefaction tolling agreement with the project. This could result in yearly of up to 200 billion yen ($1.8 billion).

The company believes the rising prices of LNG cold boost the appeal of its LNG business.

LNG World News Staff