Trump says Japan to invest in energy, industrial projects in Ohio, Texas and Georgia

By David Lawder and Jarrett Renshaw

WASHINGTON, Feb 17 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's administration on Tuesday announced three projects valued at $36 billion to be financed by Japan, including an oil export facility in Texas, an industrial ‌diamonds plant in Georgia and a natural gas power plant in Ohio.

The projects are the first investments under ‌Japan's $550 billion U.S. investment pledge as part of a trade deal that cut Trump's tariffs on Japanese imports to 15%, Trump said on Truth Social. ​He gave few details about the projects.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said in a statement that the Portsmouth, Ohio power plant, valued at $33 billion, would be the largest natural gas-fired generating facility in U.S. history, generating 9.2 gigawatts of electricity annually, enough to power all of the homes in Ohio.

The facility, to be operated by SB Energy, a subsidiary of Japanese tech investor SoftBank Group, would increase ‌baseload power at a time of fast-growing ⁠electricity demand from data centers built to power artificial intelligence applications. The White House said Japan would invest in the $2.1 billion Texas GulfLink deepwater crude oil export facility off the Texas coast.

"This project ⁠is expected to generate $20–30 billion annually in U.S. crude exports, secure export capacity for our refineries, and reinforce America’s position as the world’s leading energy supplier," Lutnick said.

Texas GulfLink, which is being developed by Sentinel Midstream, confirmed that it was part of the initiative and ​was "honored ​to be a trusted partner with the U.S. Department of Commerce ​and the government of Japan."

Trump said the Texas investments ‌would include a liquefied natural gas project, but Lutnick's statement did not mention LNG.

Lutnick said the third major project was a synthetic industrial diamond manufacturing plant that would satisfy 100% of U.S. demand for synthetic diamond grit, a critical input for advanced manufacturing. The U.S. currently relies largely on China for such supplies.

It was unclear how much of the projects' costs would be funded by Japanese entities and under what conditions. Under an earlier U.S.-Japan agreement, profits from the projects were due to ‌be shared 50-50 between the U.S. and Japan until Japan's initial investment ​costs were recouped, after which profits would be split 90-10 in favor ​of the U.S.

The administration's announcements followed meetings last week ​between Lutnick and Japan's economic and trade minister Ryosei Akazawa.

Akazawa told reporters on Thursday that several ‌issues remained unresolved before deals could be announced.

"The scale ​of these projects are so large, ​and could not be done without one very special word, TARIFFS," Trump wrote on Truth Social.

"The Gas Power Plant in Ohio (A State I won THREE TIMES!) will be the largest in History, the LNG Facility in the ​Gulf of America will drive Exports, and ‌further our Country's Energy DOMINANCE, and our Critical Minerals Facility will end our FOOLISH dependence on Foreign Sources," ​Trump added.

(Reporting by Christian Martinez, David Lawder and Jarrett Renshaw in Washington, Laila Kearney and and Makiko Yamazaki ; Writing ​by David Lawder and Ismail Shakil; Editing by David Gregorio)