Nasdaq-listed US LNG developer NextDecade Corp said the Covid-19 pandemic and volatility in the energy markets may affect its efforts to reach an FID on its Rio Grande LNG project in Brownsville, Texas
The announcement by Houston-based NextDecade, which had expected to make FID on Rio Grande LNG in 2020, was made in a US securities filing. Plans for Rio Grande LNG call for developing an LNG export facility with a nameplate capacity of 27 mta, with four 180,000-m3 storage tanks.
In March 2019, NextDecade signed a 20-year sales and purchase agreement with Shell to supply 2 mta from the Rio Grande LNG export facility.
LNG Shipping & Terminals previously reported on the possibility of the delay in FID on Rio Grande LNG by NextDecade. Other international and US LNG export projects have delayed their FIDs amid the market uncertainty. Tellurian’s Driftwood LNG, located on the Calcasieu River near Lake Charles, Louisiana, will be pushed back until 2023. With a nameplate capacity of 27.6 mta, Driftwood LNG is the largest of the LNG export projects to be delayed. Tellurian had planned to start commercial operations in 2023.
An FID on Energy Transfer’s Lake Charles LNG, with a capacity of 16.45 mta, was also shelved until 2021.
Dallas-based Energy Transfer took over as lead developer of Lake Charles LNG, following Shell’s exit from the Louisiana project in March. While it still believes in the Gulf Coast LNG export facility, Energy Transfer says it is evaluating “various alternatives to advance the project, among which are bringing in equity partners and reducing the size of the project from three trains (16.45 mta of LNG capacity) to two trains (11.0 mta).
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