A news release from the Houston-based oil and gas company NextDecade has confirmed that the Rio Grande LNG facility in Brownsville, Texas, which happens to be the liquid natural gas export terminal project, will soon go ahead with the construction of its facility. Bechtel, which is based in Reston, Virginia, has gone on to finalize as well as execute $9 billion in contracts when it comes to the construction work. Apparently, NextDecade happens to be the facility owner.
According to NextDecade, its subsidiaries went to finalize a pricing refresh of its wholesale, Turkey engineering procurement, as well as a construction contract with Bechtel when it comes to the construction of train 4 as well as related infrastructure. It has also gone on to execute a lump sum Turkey EPC contract with Bechtel in terms of similar work as far as the forthcoming train 5 is concerned.
Apart from this, both the contracts happen to feature pricing validity clauses, which go beyond September 2025, says the news release. Investment service firm based out of Chicago, Zacks Equity Research, has gone on to note that, as per the clause, Bechtel will not be increasing the cost that is associated with these two trains before the listed date.
It is well to be noted that Bechtel, apparently, is already building phase 1 when it comes to the Rio Grande LNG work for a whopping $12 billion, which includes the first three liquefaction trains within the facility.
Interestingly, the project took a backseat in 2024 after a federal appeals court went on to overturn the authorization by the federal energy regulatory commission when it came to train 4. The court had said that the agency should have gone ahead and issued a supplemental environmental impact statement prior to approving the construction.
But in March 2025, the court wants to overturn the previous decision that now enables NextDecade to go ahead as per the law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, which happens to represent their client NextDecade. Notably, FERC went ahead and issued a draft SCIS when it came to the first five trains based at the Rio Grand LNG facility in March 2025, along with the final SEIS to be issued in July 2025. A corporate presentation dated sometime in May 2025 went on to note that the company looks forward to FERC going ahead and reauthorizing the project by November 2025.
It is worth noting that the overall project completion percentage when it comes to trains 1 and 2, along with the common facility with this Rio Grande LNG work, touched almost 43% as of March 2025, as per the first quarter business update by NextDecade in May 2025. When it comes to train 3, it clocked almost 18%, and all three figures were in line as per the timeframe according to the contract by the EPC.