TotalEnergies, Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), NextDecade Corporation, and their partners, GIC and Mubadala, made the final investment decision (FID) 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.

The project will be financed by equity contributions from the partners and by a debt contribution concluded with an international banks’ consortium. As a result of this decision, and according to the terms of the agreement signed in June, TotalEnergies: acquires a 16.67% stake in the joint-venture in charge of this first phase, and will participate in its equity contributions, for a total amount of $1.1 billion. will hold a total 17.5% stake in NextDecade for a total amount of $219 million.

A first tranche of 5.06% was acquired last June, and a second tranche will be acquired in the next few days to increase this stake to 12.47% and a third tranche of 5.03 % shall be acquired before the end of the year. TotalEnergies will also offtake 5.4 Mtpa of LNG from the production of this phase for 20 years.