Oil & Gas Pro

Japanese companies become new players in Haynesville Shale

Japanese companies become new players in Haynesville Shale, buy assets in Louisiana, Texas

BY LIZ SWAINE | Staff writer  Feb. 20, 2026 shreveportbossieradvocate.com/business

A couple of new names are popping up in Haynesville Shale drilling permits: Adamas Energy LLC and JERA Americas Inc. 

Adamas is an arm of Mitsubishi Corp., which is in the process of finalizing a roughly $7.5 billion purchase of Aethon's assets and debt. Aethon has been a player in the Shale since 2017.

"Aethon has probably done more refracking of old wells than any other major player in the Haynesville Shale," Shreveport mineral consultant Skip Peel told The Shreveport-Bossier City Advocate.

JERA is Japan's largest power-generating company. It produces one-third of Japan's electricity and is one of the largest Liquefied Natural Gas buyers in the world, according to its website.

JERA closed Feb. 12 on $1.5 billion of Western Haynesville assets of Williams and GEP Haynesville II, LLC that includes active wells and some 200 undeveloped locations.

The Houston-based company said it was drawn to the Haynesville Shale because of a list of positives: robust current production and proven reserves, gathering, treating and transport infrastructure, and proximity to both Gulf Coast LNG and data center hubs that will need its natural gas product for electricity.

"The U.S. energy sector is leading the way in the global LNG market and JERA's investments have lined up accordingly," said John O'Brien, JERA Americas' chief executive officer. 

Meanwhile, former Aethon drilling permits in Texas are being changed to reflect the new Adamas Energy name, so changes could be coming soon to permits in Louisiana.

The Tokyo-based company also owns a stake in the Cameron LNG export facility in Louisiana, and they, too, are predicting growth based on the power needs of artificial intelligence and data centers.

Japan's government has been encouraging firms in the country to invest more heavily in energy, believing that there will be higher AI-driven power demands over the next decade. The government is actively pushing renewables and nuclear power and has revised policies to include joint-venture LNG projects. 

Mitsubishi's deal with Aethon is expected to close within the next four months.

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landownerPermalink Reply by Dale Walton on February 20, 2026 at 14:30

Liz Swaine.  Now there is a name.  I used to live in Shreveport and remember her from the news.  


Oil & Gas ProPermalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on February 20, 2026 at 14:35

Liz was the news anchor on Channel 3 for a lengthy tenure.  Then worked in city government and as Director of the Downtown Development Authority.  She got the opportunity to return to what she loves - covering the news.

Permalink Reply by Gale on March 20, 2026 at 12:51

Yep. This is happening….so TGNR appears to be a company from Japan. Recently a portion of our Chevron leases were sold to TGNR and I had to deal with them to attempt to get the messes with checks straighten out.  Many of the employees spoke extremely broken English, I found 1 gentleman I could understand. So out of curiosity I googled TGNR to find out they are a Japanese company and it appears their staff is japanese as well. Understand I have no issue with the Japanese it’s purely that at age 70.5 the hearing is not the greatest and communicating with them was difficult and we were not receiving our revenue regularly. Chevron did not so much as give any ideal that this transfer was happening. The transition was not easy, it took real diligent work to get the checks started and regular..so YES indeed companies from Japan are in East Texas oil fields! 


Oil & Gas ProPermalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on March 20, 2026 at 16:43

Tokyo Gas Natural Resources - TGNR.  I'm surprised to hear that customer service is manned by Japanese.  That's not good and hopefully it will change.  For communication with operators, I always suggest getting a name and email address.  Busy people always seem to do better with email as opposed to phone calls.  And emails provide a record of your communications.  That can come in handy.

Permalink Reply by Gale on March 20, 2026 at 17:53

Skip,

      I have the name, email, ext # of every employee at TGNR. I did inquire where they’re located and was told by some in downtown Houston and another said in San Antonio. I have not seen the people but the dialect is aligned with Japanese. Honestly we feel like they were not prepared for a transition. The one gentleman fixed things, if I could get him he had answers. 
    In addition to TGNR, Valance which acquired another lease back about 10 yrs ago has had either staffing changes in accounting, or something going on. In 2024  we received paperwork for direct deposit and all submitted the required paperwork in and nothing happened and for 3 yrs prior they had told us would start ACH Deposit and nothing happened. Then they sent more papers required and wanted up to sign up for PakExchange and provide a cancelled check and forms again which I promptly did that around May 2025, as did my relatives. In Nov we did get a deposit but no deposit in Feb and no statement in PakExchange in Jan 2026. I called and the things I was told make no sense at all. I said I had submitted the papers along with family members doing so as well and that we had received cks in Nov, Dec and Jan and they basically called me a liar! Finally got a young man on the phone to which within 12 hrs I received the statement from Jan 2026 and he supposely has it straight.  We will see! 
    I had to call Sydri double checking on an address change, the lady was on it, granted I know they are small but she was straight forward and confirmed my address change. I told her Thank-you and how much I appreciated her attending to it fast as I had been messing with TGNR and Valance. I mentioned that Valance evidently had a new computer system PakExchange and things were messed up. She says that’s not a new program it’s a very old antiquated program.  Everything else we have is on Energy Link. The  smallest lease we have is with Sydri and they seem to have the only competent person in accounting! 
    I’m not going to even mention Chevron ( it’s similar to valance) as  I know this is long and did not intend it to be. All the years since I inherited these mineral rights (1989) as a royalty owner I’ve never dealt with anything like this.. and I have about 6 family members that have ownership in these leases as well so I pass stuff along and give them the numbers to call etc. I actually physically have possession of all the leases some back to 1920. 

Thanks again Skip


landownerPermalink Reply by Dale Walton on March 21, 2026 at 0:31

Makes you think that Chesapeake is not so bad.  At least they speak English.  


Oil & Gas ProPermalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on March 21, 2026 at 1:47

Unfortunately your challenges are common for most mineral owners trying to deal with the operators of their wells.  It seems that once they have a valid lease, they largely ignore or slow walk anything you request.  Such is the industry.


Oil & Gas ProPermalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on March 21, 2026 at 1:49

Dale, it appears that Expand has improved in regard to customer service compared to Chesapeake.  Of course Chesapeake was so bad that it was difficult for Expand to be worse.


landownerPermalink Reply by Dale Walton on March 21, 2026 at 4:16

I don’t think people complained as much about the CS as the deducts.  Those of us with older leases before the frenzy who don’t have no duduct leases got really deducted before the CHK bankruptcy.  


Oil & Gas ProPermalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on March 21, 2026 at 4:23

In my experience very few leases covering Haynesville production had no cost royalty clauses.  If memory serves, no cost clauses and depth limitation clauses begin to be used in the 1970s but were limited to those mineral owners with large acreages and experienced O&G law firms.  It was much later that those clauses became more well known and adopted.  Getting them continued to be based on location and size.

Then there are the cases where a mineral owner requested a no cost clause from the lessee and got one that did not stand up in court.  The wording of the clause was critical to being enforceable. Far too many mineral owners attempted negotiations on their own and didn't get good legal assistance.

Permalink Reply by Gale on March 21, 2026 at 10:35

 We are being charged cost and I’m fairly certain our lease is no cost….Ive mentioned this to Chevron but am going to have to pull the leases to verify and then start that fight with them. When we had McGoldrick Oil Co years ago they started charging for compression and I told them why are we paying compression cost……..that was all it took and we never paid compression again on those wells. It’s always something. 


landownerPermalink Reply by Scott Walberg on April 11, 2026 at 8:29

Skip,

We have no cost clauses in our leases but Chesapeake , now Expand have been taking out extra "costs" since 2018  and on this recent check took out even more costs out on 5 months prior. Any idea how to approach these guys without incurring massive legal fees. We had an experienced O&G attorney do the leases which state" Lessor's royalty herein is free of all charges and costs whatsoever including but not limited to production, compression, cleaning, dehydration, metering, detoxification, transportation, accounting and marketing, except lessors royalty be responsible for its pro rata share of all taxes imposed on severance or production by any municipal, parish, state or federal agency."

Have you heard of anyone successfully getting these costs back?

Thanks

Scott

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