Soaring demand for natural gas among energy majors and investors has pushed dealmaking to its highest level in more than a decade, with buyers competing over the limited number of global assets available. More than $32bn was spent on buying gas production projects in the first six months of the year, the highest level in over a decade, according to industry consultants Wood Mackenzie. The biggest deal by far in the first half of 2026 was Shell’s acquisition of Canadian shale producer ARC Resources for $16.4bn, its largest since buying BG a decade ago.

XRG, the overseas investment arm of Abu Dhabi’s Adnoc, has gas assets in Texas, Mozambique and Turkmenistan and signed deals to add projects in Azerbaijan, Argentina and Venezuela. XRG intends to invest tens of billions of dollars building its US gas business. The US is also central to Saudi Aramco’s international gas growth plans.

It agreed to invest in Texas’s Port Arthur LNG project and gained a foothold in several international LNG projects through its stake in Mid Ocean Energy, an LNG company created by EIG. Japanese companies have been particularly heavy investors in US shale because they need LNG to meet their energy requirements and want to exert greater control over the resources they rely on. Together, Japanese groups hold 36 per cent of production at the Haynesville shale basin, which stretches from east Texas to north-west Louisiana, according to Wood Mackenzie.

Commodity trader Gunvor has made a series of bets on US gas, most recently entering talks to buy more than $1bn of gas-producing assets in the Haynesville basin.