The United States Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has issued a draft environmental impact statement (EIS) for NextDecade Corporation's Rio Grande LNG liquefaction project in Brownsville, South Texas (United States) and the associated Rio Bravo gas pipeline. The final EIS is expected for April 2019, the federal authorisation decision for July 2019 and the project's final investment decision (FIS) is slated for the third quarter of 2019. The project is estimated requiring an investment up to US$20bn.
The Rio Grande LNG is planned to have a 27 Mt/year (36.5 bcm/year) production capacity and 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.