US LNG developer NextDecade has reached agreement with construction firm Bechtel for the building of two liquefaction trains at its Rio Grande LNG terminal in Texas, the company announced in a press release on June 12.

The Houston-headquartered firm’s subsidiaries have agreed to finalize a pricing refresh for an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract with Bechtel for Train 4. It also signed an EPC contract for Train 5 and the required infrastructure at the facility located in Brownsville.

Under the terms of the deal, NextDecade’s subsidiaries will pay Bechtel $4.77bn to construct Train 4 and the related infrastructure. The liquefaction unit itself is estimated to cost between $1.8bn - $2bn, with the remainder allocated for the associated infrastructure.

Meanwhile, a payment of $4.32bn will be made for construction of Train 5 and the supporting infrastructure. Train 5 is expected to cost the same as Train 4, however, the related infrastructure is forecast to cost less than for Train 4.   

NextDecade reached a final investment decision (FID) on the first phase of the project in July 2023.

The $18.4bn project received approximately $5.9bn of financial commitments from the New York-based private equity company Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), Singapore’s GIC, the Abu Dhabi government’s Mubadala Investment Company and French supermajor TotalEnergies.

TotalEnergies also owns a 17.5% stake in NextDecade, which it purchased in June 2023 at a cost of $219mn and has committed to purchasing 5.4mn tonnes per year (tpy) of LNG from the project. The three liquefaction trains of Phase 1 give Rio Grande a nameplate capacity of 18mn tpy.

NextDecade is expected to take FID on Trains 4 and 5 before mid-September. Adding the two liquefaction units would raise the project’s production capacity to 27mn tpy. In April, TotalEnergies agreed to purchase 1.5mn tpy from Train 4 over 20 years on a free-on-board (FOB) basis.

The US LNG developer also revealed earlier in June that it has inked a sales and purchase agreement (SPA) with Japan’s JERA. The offtake agreement will see the Japanese energy giant buy 2mn tpy of LNG under a 20-year contract, with the potential for an additional 2.5mn tpy upon a positive FID being taken on Train 5.  

NextDecade could also add Trains 6-8 in a Third Phase of expansion that would raise the project’s nameplate capacity to 45mn tpy.