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NextDecade’s unit Rio Grande LNG Super has entered into a credit agreement with General Atlantic Credit’s Atlantic Park Fund that provides for the senior secured loan.
According to a statement by NextDecade, proceeds from the loan were disbursed at closing on December 31, 2024,
Net proceeds will be used to repay outstanding borrowings under the company’s existing $50 million revolving credit facility and $12.5 million interest term loan, and to fund working capital and general corporate purposes, including development expenses for expansion trains 4 and 5 at the Rio Grande LNG facility.
The loan matures six years from the closing date, while borrowings under the loan bear interest at 12 percent, with interest payable quarterly.
On the closing date, NextDecade issued to GA Credit about 7.16 million warrants.
NextDecade said the warrants are each exercisable for one share of NextDecade common stock at the option of GA Credit, and are exercisable for five years after the closing date.
The company said 50 percent of the warrants are exercisable at $7.15 per share, which represents the 30-day volume weighted average trading price for the 30 trading-day period immediately preceding the closing date, and the remaining 50 percent of the warrants are exercisable at $9.30 per share.
Rio Grande LNG
NextDecade issued a construction update for the first phase of its Rio Grande LNG facility in November 2024, saying that the first two trains were 30.5 percent complete.
In July 2023, NextDecade took the final investment decision on the first three Rio Grande trains and completed $18.4 billion project financing.
NextDecade awarded the $12 billion EPC contract to Bechtel, and it officially kicked off work on the plant in October last year.
The firm also closed a joint venture agreement for the first phase which included about $5.9 billion of financial commitments from Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), GIC, Mubadala, and TotalEnergies.
NextDecade holds equity interests in the Phase 1 joint venture that entitle it to receive up to 20.8 percent of the distributions of available cash during operations.
Phase 1, with nameplate liquefaction capacity of 17.6 mtpa, has 16.2 mtpa of long-term binding LNG sale and purchase agreements.
These include deals with TotalEnergies, Shell, ENN, Engie, ExxonMobil, Guangdong Energy Group, China Gas Hongda Energy Trading, Galp, and also Itochu.
Trains 4 and 5
Including trains 4 and 5, the Rio Grande LNG facility would have a capacity of 27 mtpa.
In August 2024, NextDecade signed a lump sum turnkey engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract with Bechtel for the construction of the fourth train and related infrastructure at the Rio Grande LNG facility.
The company’s unit Rio Grande LNG Train 4 agreed to pay Bechtel about $4.3 billion for the work under the EPC contract.
Total estimated project costs are expected to be $6-$6.2 billion for Train 4 and related infrastructure, in line with the per train cost of the three-train Phase 1 at the Rio Grande LNG facility.
Achieving a positive FID on trains 4 and 5 at the Rio Grande LNG Facility will be subject to, among other things, maintaining requisite governmental approvals, finalizing and entering into EPC contracts, entering into appropriate commercial arrangements, and obtaining adequate financing to construct each train and related infrastructure, NextDecade said
Regulatory actions
In October 2024, NextDecade sought a rehearing of the D.C. Circuit Court’s ruling on its Rio Grande LNG project in Texas.
Prior to that, the US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued an order vacating the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s remand authorization of NextDecade’s Rio Grande LNG facility on the grounds that the FERC should have issued a supplemental environmental impact statement (EIS) during its remand process.
The Court’s decision will not become effective while the appeals process is ongoing.
In September 2024, FERC said it will prepare a supplemental environmental impact statement for the Rio Grande LNG project.