NextDecade Corp. signed binding agreements with lenders to secure the more than $10 billion in financing it needs to fund construction of its Rio Grande LNG export project in Texas and is aiming for a final investment decision (FID) in the next few weeks.
The Houston-based company disclosed it has received commitments from an international consortium of lenders that will allow it to move forward with the 17.6 million metric ton/year (mmty) first phase of the Texas export project.
“The lender group includes the world’s leading Asian, European, Middle Eastern and North American project finance banks,” representatives for the firm wrote in a statement.
Due to the upcoming Independence Day holiday, the firm said it is targeting FID on the first three trains on its project in early July. FID on the remaining two trains “could follow soon after,” according to NextDecade.
Overall, the export facility planned for Brownsville, TX is designed for a 27 mmty nameplate capacity at full build-out. It could also incorporate a carbon capture, storage and sequestration project, which is being commercialized separately.
Earlier in the month, NextDecade disclosed Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) and TotalEnergies would take significant equity stakes in the project. Total also agreed to take 5.4 million metric tons/year (mmty) of liquefied natural gas from phase 1 for 20 years.
NextDecade has placed 16.2 mmty of LNG from phase 1, or around 92% of nameplate capacity, under contract.
The firm has been indiciating it could fully commercialize the project by the middle of the year shortly after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission reaffirmed its authorization in April. The decision came 18 months after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ordered the Commission to review its authorizations for Rio Grande and Glenfarne Group LLC’s Texas LNG.
If NextDecade announces FID, it would be the third U.S. project to do so this year, following positive decisions to move ahead with Port Arthur LNG in Texas and the second phase of Plaquemines LNG in Louisiana.
