LNG

NextDecade Corp., the developer of the Rio Grande LNG export project in Texas, has formally taken a final investment decision to build the first three liquefaction Trains and export facilities with anticipated full capacity of around 27 million tonnes per annum with funding from the US, the Middle East and Asia.

June 30 (LNGJ) - NextDecade Corp., the developer of the Rio Grande LNG export project and now teamed up with New York investment fund Global Infrastructure Partners and French TotalEnergies, has signed binding agreements with lenders to secure over $10 billion in financing to fund construction.

   NextDecade expects to proceed with the three-Train first phase of a joint venture with ultimate plans and permits to produce up to 27 million tonnes per annum of LNG from five Trains built on the Brownsville Ship Channel. “Due in part to the observance of various holidays around the world, including the July 4th holiday, NextDecade is now targeting FID on Phase 1 in early July with FIDs of its remaining Trains to follow thereafter,” said the Houston-based company.

TotalEnergies has completed a transaction in Australia with the US equity fund Global Infrastructure Partners in relation to the downstream facilities of the Gladstone LNG project in Queensland for a sum of more than US$750 million.

The downstream assets are owned by TotalEnergies subsidiary Total GLNG Australia (TGA).

“As part of this transaction, GIP will receive a throughput-based tolling fee calculated on TGA’s share of gas processed through the downstream facilities over a period of 15 years,” explained TotalEnergies.

TGA retains full control and ownership of its 27.5 percent interest in the Gladstone LNG downstream joint venture.

“We have worked closely with GIP to achieve this infrastructure transaction and are happy of this first collaboration with such an experienced infrastructure partner,” said Jean-Pierre Sbraire, Chief Financial Officer at TotalEnergies.

Monetization

“This monetization of infrastructure assets contributes to focusing further TotalEnergies’ capital on core producing assets,” he added.

The Gladstone LNG plant, operated by Adelaide-based Santos, is one of three coal-seam-gas to-LNG ventures on Curtis Island near the port of Gladstone.

The other GLNG project partners are Malaysian oil and gas company Petronas and Korea Gas Corp

The integrated LNG project consists of CSG gas wells producing feed gas from the Fairview, Arcadia, Roma and Scotia fields, located in the onshore Bowen-Surat Basin in Queensland.

The GLNG plant and the neighbouring Shell-operated Queensland Curtis facility and the ConocoPhillips-run Australia-Pacific plant ship cargoes to Asia, mainly China, South Korea and Japan.

The GLNG project includes pipeline transportation of the CSG over a distance of around 400 kilometres to the liquefaction plant.

The plant, which has been on stream since 2015, consists of two Trains with a total nameplate capacity in excess of 7.8 million tonnes per annum.