US energy group NextDecade has signed two lump-sum turnkey (LSTK) contracts worth US$9,565m with Bechtel for the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) of the first 17.6 Mt/year phase of the 27 Mt/year Rio Grande LNG liquefaction project in Brownsville, South Texas (United States). The average cost for the first phase of the project will then average US$543/tonne.
NextDecade plans to make a final investment decision (FID) on the project by the end of September 2019 and operations could start as early as 2023. The first phase of the US$20bn Rio Grande LNG will consist of three 5.87 Mt/year liquefaction trains, two 180,000 m3 storage tanks and two marine berths. Up to three additional LNG trains should be added later to reach a total capacity of 27 Mt/year. The EPC contracts include cost, schedule, and performance guarantees, along with full site preparation activities, which are expected to cut the average costs of the remaining three trains to below US$543/tonne.
The 27 Mt/year (36.5 bcm/year) LNG project will be fed by the 4.5 bcf/d (127 mcm/d or 46.3 bcm/year) Rio Bravo pipeline that will span from the Agua Dulce area to the Brownsville export terminal. The project received authorisation from the US Department of Energy (DoE) to export LNG to Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in September 2016 and a final environmental impact statement (EIS) from the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in April 2019.
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