Brownsville Navigation District officials have welcomed a decision by a federal agency to give permitting approval for three liquefied natural gas terminals at the port.
Approval by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for LNG plants and export facilities to be run by Annova LNG, Texas LNG, and NextDecade Corp., came yesterday. It was expected.
FERC also gave permission for NextDecade to to build the Rio Bravo Pipeline, which will feed gas into its plant at the port.
“The Commission has now completed its work on applications for 11 LNG export projects in the past nine months, helping the United States expand the availability of natural gas for our global allies who need access to an efficient, affordable and environmentally friendly fuel for power generation," FERC chair Neil Chatterjee said in a statement.
Brownsville Navigation District operates the Port of Brownsville. In a news release, BND said the three new LNG projects would bring an investment of $38.75 billion.
“Today’s announcement is another significant milestone in making these energy projects a reality and is the result of years of hard work by the applicants,” said BND Chairman John Reed.
“We’d like to thank FERC for its effort and diligence in reviewing these proposals and thank our community for their support. These new energy projects reflect our long-term strategy and vision for the port to be a catalyst for economic growth in the Rio Grande Valley by encouraging domestic and international business investments and driving developments that create new good paying job opportunities for the region.”
BND’s news release stated that Texas LNG Brownsville LLC, Annova LNG Brownsville, Rio Grande LNG LLC, and Rio Bravo Pipeline Company LLC “represent a total investment of $38.75 billion in Cameron County and the Rio Grande Valley and will add thousands of job opportunities leading to significant economic progress in the region.”
Eduardo A. Campirano, Port Director and CEO for BND, said:
“The fact that the Port of Brownsville was sought out and chosen for these three LNG projects is a testament to our strategic location and Brownsville’s important role in both the energy industry and international trade. FERC’s confidence in these projects, demonstrated by today’s approval is very important. The federal commission’s evaluation process ensures that the plants must operate within the design parameters for safety and environmental protection.”
Campirano said the next step in the process will be Final Investment Decisions (FIDs) by the applicants. He said these decision could be made as early as the first quarter of next year.
“Once FIDs are announced and the projects formally break ground, the region will be poised for new and diverse job opportunities,” the Port of Brownsville’s news release stated.
“The port’s location along with strategic investments in enhanced infrastructure have turned the Port of Brownsville into a major center for large scale industrial development and a hub of economic activity, with more than 200 companies doing business at the port,” the news release also stated.
“The port is fueling job growth in the region and across the state. In fact, in 2018, more than 1,500 jobs in Texas were directly or indirectly supported by activity at the port.
“Furthermore, the Port of Brownsville is taking on an increasingly important role in international trade. Last year, the port’s Foreign Trade Zone ranked second in the U.S. for the value of exports and has consistently ranked in the top three out of 293 FTZs nationwide since 2013.”
Many elected officials and economic development leaders in the lower Valley were hopeful of a “yes” decision by FERC.
At a transportation forum in McAllen last week, Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño, Jr., said: “If luck holds out, we are hopeful they will be approved, which will be a huge, huge, boom for Cameron County and for the RGV Valley.”
And in an interview with the Rio Grande Guardian during a bus tour of Brownsville this week, Mario Lozoya, executive director of the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation said:
“We are all crossing our fingers when the FERC announcement is made, that it pushes the three projects forward. Eventually, if they do break ground, we have an expectation that suppliers will move closer to the facility.”
During the same bus tour, Bryant Walker, director of Brownsville-South Padre Island International Airport, said he would of liked expansion of the airport to have happened a little quicker because there could be hundreds of construction workers associated with the LNG projects flying.
“I would have been comfortable being six months ahead of where we are. However, our current facility does have excess capacity off schedule,” Walker said.
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas applauded the FERC decision. Cruz predicted the projects would bring billions of dollars in investment to the state, and create tens of thousands of good-paying jobs in Texas.
“FERC’s final approval of these four LNG projects is good news for both the RGV and Corpus Christi communities,” Cruz said. “There is an energy renaissance occurring in the United States, and Texas is leading the way. These projects will further economic growth, help employ thousands of hardworking men and women, lower energy costs, and increase America’s energy independence.”
Environmentalists and some residents living in Port Isabel and on South Padre Island have been campaigning against the LNG companies.
Rebekah Hinojosa, Sierra Club Brownsville Organizer
“It’s disappointing that FERC failed to recognize that these proposed fracked gas facilities would be a disaster for the Rio Grande Valley, but today’s approval is far from the end of the fight. Our communities are united in opposition to these dirty, dangerous projects, and we will continue to pursue all avenues - from the courts to pressuring financial institutions - to ensure they are never built.”
Texas LNG is proposing a two train, four million tonnes per annum (export facility located in the Port of Brownsville.
In a news release, the company said FERC’s authorization is “a crucial step” in the environmental review process to site, construct and operate the Texas LNG facility.
“The Commission’s vote to approve the Project is the result of FERC’s comprehensive environmental, safety and security reviews which analyzed publicly available data, federal and state agency input, stakeholders’ comments, and extensive engineering, safety, and design information provided by Texas LNG Brownsville,” the news release stated.
Vivek Chandra, co-founder and CEO of Texas LNG LLC, said: “With the Texas LNG Brownsville project, we are developing a mid-sized LNG export facility to better connect abundant and low cost US natural gas with the world’s growing appetite for clean fuels, and we are so pleased to have reached this important milestone that paves the way for final investment decision.”
Langtry Meyer, co-Founder and COO of Texas LNG LLC, said: “Texas LNG Brownsville is proud to have earned FERC’s approval today, which represents the culmination of over four years of extensive environmental, engineering, regulatory, and legal efforts. We are one step closer to delivering clean, safe, low-cost Texas natural gas energy to the world and generating jobs and economic benefits in Cameron County.”
The Texas LNG news release added: “The Texas LNG Brownsville facility's advantages include: access to low cost, abundant Permian Basin feed gas; use of third-party pipeline infrastructure; efficient modular construction design; low overhead costs; and transparent and competitive pricing structure. In addition, the 4 MTA size of the facility fills an important need from global LNG customers seeking smaller contracted volumes in order to diversify their gas supply portfolio.
In a news release, NextDecade said it intends to develop the largest LNG export solution linking Permian Basin associated gas to the global LNG market. The company said this would create value for producers, customers, and stockholders.
“Issuance of the FERC order marks an extremely important milestone for our project,” said Matt Schatzman, NextDecade’s chairman and CEO.
“We appreciate the comprehensive and rigorous review of our project conducted by the FERC and numerous other federal, state and local agencies over the last four and a half years.”
Schatzman said NextDecade anticipates finalizing important commercial milestones during the fourth quarter of 2019 and first quarter of 2020, prior to an anticipated final investment decision in the first quarter of 2020.
“Construction of the facility is expected to commence shortly after FID with commercial operations slated for late 2023,” the NextDecade news release stated.
Editor’s Note: The main image accompanying the above news story shows an artist rendering of the Rio Grande LNG project.
