The firm said it had signed a letter of intent with its US project developer Glenfarne “to advance discussions about liquefied natural gas offtake from the Alaska LNG Project”.

Glenfarne, which is driving the pipeline, said in a statement late yesterday that the letter detailed the ” the sale of one million tonnes per annum of LNG from the Alaska LNG Project over a 20-year term”.

US President Donald Trump has touted the 1,300km pipeline that will produce LNG to be shipped to Asia on tankers.

However, the long-stalled US$44-billion project – which must overcome various complex technical obstacles – is not expected to be operational before 2030 at the earliest.

Tokyo’s purchase of LNG from Alaska was mentioned in the Japan-US trade deal formally signed last week.

A joint statement between the two countries said Tokyo was committed to “stable and long-term incremental purchases of US energy” including “exploring a new Alaskan offtake agreement” for LNG.

Glenfarne said it was targeting a final investment decision for the Alaska LNG pipeline later this year, and to finalise commitments to export the gas by 2026.

The announcement “by JERA and Glenfarne is another important step forward for the Alaska LNG project”, US energy secretary Chris Wright was quoted as saying in both statements.

Resource-poor Japan has been trying to beef up its energy security by diversifying its procurement of natural resources as it remains highly dependent on oil imports from the Middle East.

“An increase in supply of US-produced LNG, which is highly competitive, has the potential to diversify supply sources,” Japanese government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters today.

“Broadly speaking this will be beneficial to our country, especially given it can help secure and stabilise the supply of necessary resources for us,” he said.