Japan’s JERA annuls deal with Commonwealth LNG

Japan’s largest energy company JERA has terminated its long-term LNG sales and purchase agreement (SPA) with US developer Commonwealth LNG, Reuters reported on April 3, citing a document filed with the US Department of Energy (DOE).

In June 2025, JERA announced the signing of a handful of LNG deals with US firms including 20-year SPAs with Commonwealth LNG, NextDecade, Sempra, and Cheniere. JERA is the world’s biggest LNG buyers among companies and Japan is the world’s second-largest buyer of LNG behind only China.

The contract with Commonwealth was for 1mn tonnes per year (tpy), as was the deal with Cheniere. JERA’s contract with NextDecade was for 2mn tpy, while the SPA with Sempra was for 1.5mn tpy. In total, JERA inked long-term deals to secure up to 5.5mn tpy of the super-chilled fuel from US developers.

However, the deal with Commonwealth was terminated effective March 3. No reason was provided for why the contract was annulled. Commonwealth filed a notification of the termination of the deal with the DOE on April 1.

Commonwealth had actively been searching for deals with Asian buyers and was rumored in April 2025 to be in advanced negotiations an offtake agreement with Malaysia’s state-run Petronas.

After inking the deal with JERA, Commonwealth also secured a 20-year LNG supply deal with Petronas in June 2025 for 1mn tpy of the super-cooled gas.

In January, Commonwealth was granted approval for a 20-year export licence for non-free trade agreement countries from the DOE.

Commonwealth has yet to take a final investment decision (FID) on the 9.5mn tpy facility located in Cameron Parish, Louisiana. The company initially set a target of taking FID before the end of 2025, and after failing to meet that goal, it reset its target for FID to before the end of the first quarter of 2026, however it has also failed to meet this goal.