TotalEnergies, partners green light LNG project in South Texas

(WO) – TotalEnergies, Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) NextDecade Corporation, and their partners, GIC and Mubadala, made the final investment decision  to develop phase 1 of Rio Grande LNG (RGLNG), a natural gas liquefaction (LNG) project in South Texas.

This first phase comprises 3 liquefaction trains with a total capacity of 17.5 million tons per annum (MTPA) and CAPEX of $14.8 billion. The Engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract has been awarded to Bechtel, and commissioning of the plant is scheduled for 2027.

TotalEnergies will also offtake 5.4 MTPA of LNG from the production of this phase for 20 years.

“This project gives TotalEnergies access to competitive LNG thanks to its low production costs. LNG from this first phase will boost TotalEnergies U.S. LNG export capacity to over 15 MTPA by 2030, and thus our ability to contribute to European gas security, and to provide customers in Asia with an alternative form of energy that is half as emissive as coal,” said Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman and CEO of TotalEnergies.

TotalEnergies is the world’s third largest LNG player with a market share of around 12% and a global portfolio of about 50 Mt/y, thanks to its interests in liquefaction plants in all geographies. The company benefits from an integrated position across the LNG value chain, including production, transportation, access to more than 20 Mt/y of regasification capacity in Europe, trading, and LNG bunkering. TotalEnergies’ ambition is to increase the share of natural gas in its sales mix to close to 50% by 2030, to reduce carbon emissions and eliminate methane emissions associated with the gas value chain, and to work with local partners to promote the transition from coal to natural gas.