By America Hernandez
(Reuters) -U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) producer NextDecade said on Monday it has signed a 20-year deal to supply France’s TotalEnergies with 1.5 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) from its Rio Grande facility’s planned fourth liquefaction facility, or train.
NextDecade has so far contracted a total of 4.6 MTPA of LNG from Train 4 on a long-term basis, most recently with a Saudi Aramco subsidiary, and expects existing long-term commercial agreements to be sufficient to support a favourable Final Investment Decision (FID).
The Rio Grande LNG export plant has suffered repeated delays and has been in development for years, with the first train expected to reach completion by 2027.
Deals for the fourth train are subject to NextDecade taking a positive final investment decision (FID) on the project.
TotalEnergies is an early investor in Rio Grande and the largest offtaker of U.S. LNG, exporting more than 10 million tonnes annually from several producers under long-term contracts. The French oil major plans to grow that position to more than 15 million tonnes by 2030 as the company pursues a dual strategy of investing in both natural gas and renewable energy.
Patrick Pouyanne, Total’s chairman and CEO, told Reuters in an exclusive interview in February that he hoped to further expand the U.S. LNG portfolio by helping Rio Grande add a fifth, sixth or seventh train over the next decade.
(Reporting by Arunima Kumar and Pooja Menon in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid and Susan Fenton)
