Last month, Mitsui and Mitsubishi, of Japan, and GDF Suez of France said they would join with Sempra Energy, based in San Diego, California, to build a $10 billion liquefied natural gas plant in Hackberry, Louisiana.
They joined several other non-U.S. companies, including Korea Gas and GAIL, a large Indian utility, in trying to lock up prospective U.S. exports of abundant, low-cost shale gas.