NextDecade, Bechtel extend agreed pricing of Rio Grande LNG contract
NextDecade Corp. has notified the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of amendments to its agreements with Bechtel Energy Inc. for engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contracts on the 17.6-million tonne/year (tpy) Phase 1 of the proposed Rio Grande LNG plant in Brownsville, Tex. The amendments lock in agreed upon pricing until June 15, 2023, and follow NextDecade missing a deadline to issue Bechtel a notice to proceed with construction.
NextDecade also told the SEC that is targeting final investment decision (FID) for Phase 1’s three liquefaction trains by the end of second-quarter 2023. It had previously been targeting a first-quarter 2023 FID.
The EPC contract is worth roughly $11.5 billion and includes the three liquefaction trains, two marine berths, and two 180,000-cu m storage tanks.
NextDecade has so far reached long-term sales agreements with eight buyers for a total of 11 million tpy. The most recent of these was a 15-year, 1-million tpy deal concluded with Itochu Corp. earlier this year (OGJ Online, Jan. 19, 2023).
A designed second phase would add two trains and bring total capacity to 27 million tpy.
Christopher E. Smith | Editor in Chief
Christopher brings 27 years of experience in a variety of oil and gas industry analysis and reporting roles to his work as Editor-in-Chief, specializing for the last 15 of them in midstream and transportation sectors.