Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala Energy has signed an agreement with alternative asset manager Kimmeridge to acquire a 24.1% interest in Kimmeridge’s SoTex HoldCo, marking its entry into the US gas market.

SoTex holds two portfolio companies: Kimmeridge Texas Gas, which operates an upstream unconventional gas business in Eagle Ford in South Texas, and Commonwealth LNG, which owns the 9.3 million metric tonnes per year pre-FID ( final investment decision ) LNG liquefaction and export facility strategically located at the mouth of the Calcasieu Pass in Louisiana.

Through SoTex, Kimmeridge is building America’s first integrated gas independent to deliver low-cost natural gas from wellhead to water and meet burgeoning global demand for liquefied natural gas.

Kimmeridge Texas Gas’ current net production is over 500 MMcfe/d ( million cubic feet of gas equivalent per day ), which is expected to grow organically to 1.5 Bcfe/d ( billion cubic feet of gas equivalent per day ) by 2031, while Commonwealth LNG is finalizing key workstreams before taking an FID later this year. The first offtake from the LNG plant is planned for 2029.

“Through this partnership and our entry into the US, we are to further build on our leading role in building energy champions that deepen our position in the global economy," says Bakheet Al Katheeri, chief executive officer of UAE Investments Platform, Mubadala Investment Company. "As the company’s first major investment in the US, this transaction positions Mubadala Energy for accelerated growth across the gas value chain in one of the world’s most important and attractive energy hubs.”

The deal bolsters the company’s ambitious growth plans to invest across the gas value chain in key energy hubs around the world, and acts as a major addition to its existing global gas portfolio. Mubadala says it aims to play a proactive role in the energy transition by supporting major gas projects as a bridge to a lower carbon energy future, and as such, this investment is in line with the UAE’s 2050 net-zero ambition.

Some energy analysts forecast that US LNG supply will grow to approximately 33% of the global market by 2050.

Mubadala Investment Company PJSC is a state-owned global investment firm that acts as one of the sovereign wealth funds of the government of Abu Dhabi.