NextDecade seeks Rio Grande LNG rehearing after court ruling

In August, 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.

Last month, the FERC said it will prepare a supplemental environmental impact statement for the Rio Grande LNG project.

According to a filing dated October 21, NextDecade has filed the rehearing request with the DC Court of Appeals.

Rio Grande LNG petitions for rehearing and rehearing en banc.

“En banc review is necessary because the panel opinion conflicts with Circuit and Supreme Court precedent, creates multiple circuit splits, and causes needless unjustified devastation,” it said.

1,700 workers on site

Rio Grande LNG says loss of FERC’s authorization would not “just mean minor delay in completing the project; it would trigger contractual events of default, putting the entire $18.4 billion project in dire jeopardy.”

According to Rio Grande LNG, the consequences would be “calamitous.”

This includes the loss of thousands of high-paying jobs in a community with one of the country’s highest unemployment rates.

“Today, approximately 1,700 workers are employed on site; absent vacatur that number would soon grow to 5,000,” it said.

Rio Grande LNG said its global customers “will lose a critical source of LNG at a time when many U.S. allies are desperately trying to avoid the need to purchase gas from Russia.”

“Simply put, the decision defies common sense. A perceived procedural agency foot-fault is no basis to place a hugely beneficial project at existential risk when there is no reason to doubt that authorization of the project is in the public interest,” Rio Grande LNG said.

Rio Grande LNG

NextDecade recently released the latest construction update for the first phase of its Rio Grande LNG export plant in Texas.

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 compatriot Bechtel, and it officially kicked of 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.

Including trains 4 and 5, the Rio Grande LNG facility would have a capacity of 27 mtpa.