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The US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Tuesday 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.
“NextDecade is disappointed in the Court’s decision and disagrees with its conclusions,” the company said in a statement.
The company said it is reviewing the Court’s decision and assessing all of its options.
“At this time, construction continues on the first three liquefaction trains and related infrastructure (Phase 1) at the Rio Grande LNG facility,” NextDecade said.
The company added it is evaluating the impact of the Court’s decision on the timing of a positive final investment decision (FID) on Train 4.
Rio Grande LNG
NextDecade just signed a lump sum turnkey engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract with compatriot 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, which is currently under construction, it said.
Besides the final investment decision on the first three Rio Grande trains, NextDecade also last year completed $18.4 billion project financing and it awarded the $12 billion EPC contract to Bechtel.
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.
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.