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Abu Dhabi is stepping up its bet on US gas by buying a stake in one of the country’s most significant shale regions, as President Donald Trump’s pledge to unleash US energy exports fuels hope of a new industry boom.
Mubadala Energy, owned by Abu Dhabi sovereign investor Mubadala, is buying a 24.1 per cent stake in energy-focused asset manager Kimmeridge’s shale gas production business in Texas and its Commonwealth liquefied natural gas export terminal in Louisiana.
The deal, thought to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars, comes months after the Trump administration granted an export licence to the Commonwealth terminal by lifting a pause on LNG permit approvals put in place under Joe Biden.
Middle Eastern energy groups have been considering investments in US LNG over the past two years, as they seek to build a presence in the world’s largest LNG export nation. Abu Dhabi’s national oil company last year acquired an 11.7 per cent stake in NextDecade’s Rio Grande gas export facility in Texas.
The United Arab Emirates said it had invested $1tn in the US, and the White House this year said the Gulf state had committed to a $1.4tn “investment framework” across sectors ranging from artificial intelligence to metals and energy.
Oil-rich Abu Dhabi also invests extensively in energy assets around the world, including buying up wind farms and solar farms through state-backed clean energy company Masdar. It is also expanding in petrochemicals, and its energy investment platform XRG acquired German chemicals maker Covestro last year.
In a joint press release, Mubadala Energy and Kimmeridge described the deal as a “strategic play in one of the world’s most important gas hubs” and cited analysts’ expectations that the US would supply about a third of the world’s liquefied natural gas by 2050.
It is Mubadala Energy’s first major investment in the US and its first deal since its 2021 purchase of a stake in Israel’s Tamar gasfield. The company also has interests in Russia, south-east Asia and elsewhere.
The gas production business, Kimmeridge Texas Gas, produces about 500mn cubic feet of natural gas equivalent per day from the prolific Eagle Ford region of South Texas, and expects to increase this to 1.5bn cubic feet per day by 2031.
The Commonwealth LNG plant is expected to be up and running in 2029, assuming the final investment decision goes ahead this year as planned.
The investment comes as Trump’s energy secretary Chris Wright begins a two-week tour of the Middle East, which is aimed at strengthening diplomatic and economic ties with the region. Trump has been pushing Middle Eastern governments to invest in the US, asking Saudi Arabia in January to increase its proposed $600mn investment pledge to $1tn.
