Texas LNG Terminal

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Texas LNG Terminal is a proposed LNG terminal that would be located in the Port of Brownsville in Texas, United States.

Location

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Project Details

• Owner: Texas LNG Brownsville, LLC
• Operator: Texas LNG Brownsville, LLC
• Parent: Alder Midstream (subsidiary of Glenfarne Group) is majority owner, Samsung Engineering is minority equity owner
• Location: Brownsville, Texas, United States
• Coordinates: 25.950835, -97.410844 (approximate)
• Type: Export
• Trains: 2
• Capacity: 4 mtpa (2 mtpa per train)
• Cost: US$3.5 billion
• Status: Proposed
• FID Status: Pre-FID (2024)
  • Formerly 2023
• Start Year: 2027
  • Formerly 2022

Note: mtpa = million tonnes per year; bcfd = billion cubic feet per day

Background

Texas LNG Terminal is a proposed LNG terminal in the Port of Brownsville, Texas, United States. A final investment decision (FID) for the project is expected in 2018. If the project moves forward, LNG production is expected in 2022.

The draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) was issued in October 2018, and the final EIS in March 2019. Based on the FEIS date and timelines of other approved LNG export projects, Texas LNG says it expects to receive its Final FERC Order authorizing construction and operation of its facility in the second half of 2019, in accordance with previously announced recent estimates.

In December of 2019, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a formal approval of the project. FERC also approved, with conditions, the Rio Grande LNG Terminal, the Rio Bravo Gas Pipeline, and the Annova LNG Brownsville Terminal, bringing the total number of FERC-approved project in 2019 to eleven. All three LNG project sponsors have applications pending before the U.S. Department of Energy seeking authorization to export gas to countries without Free Trade Agreements with the United States. In February 2020, the U.S. Department of Energy issued approvals for the three terminals to ship LNG to nations that aren't part of free trade agreements, such as Japan, South Korea and India.

In May 2020, Texas LNG received an air permit approval from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) which allows construction and operation of the terminal. The company said that this would allow a FID to take place in 2021.

In March 2021, Texas LNG said that the project remained on track for a FID later in the year or early in 2022, despite the company not having secured any firm long-term offtake contracts.

At the Gastech conference in September 2021, John Baguley, the Project Director of Glenfarne Group whose affiliate Alder Midstream is one of the Texas LNG Terminal owners, told reporters that the project's FID was further delayed, probably out to the end of 2022.

In April 2022, Glenfarne said it was still aiming for FID by the end of 2022, and for commercial operations to begin in 2026, a delay of four years.

In May 2022, Technip Energies and Samsung were selected jointly to serve as contractors responsible for the facility’s delivery, including engineering, construction coordination, start-up, and commissioning.

In March 2023, Société Générale, the project's financial advisor, announced that it had exited the project, Reuters reports that "Without commenting on this specific decision, a SocGen spokesperson pointed to its climate commitments, which include ending all LNG financing where the project is not aligned with the bank's human rights and environmental, social and governance goals."

In April 2023, FERC reconfirmed its approval of the project, alongside Rio Grande LNG Terminal. Glenfarne said that it expected to take FID in 2023.

In November 2023, Glenfarne selected Baker Hughes to supply gas compression technology equipment, including electric motor drives, to the project, and announced that it was delaying a possible FID until 2024.

Opposition

Following the 2019 FERC approval, opponents filed new lawsuits against the three proposed LNG terminals and one proposed gas pipeline in Brownsville, Texas, the Annova LNG Brownsville Terminal, the Rio Grande LNG Terminal, the Texas LNG Terminal, and the Rio Bravo Gas Pipeline. The three suits were filed by local residents, the city of Port Isabel and the Sierra Club. Local shrimpers and fishermen filed a suit against Rio Grande LNG and the Rio Bravo Pipeline in the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, challenging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approval of a water permit for the plant and pipeline. The plaintiffs argue that the Corps failed to avoid or mitigate negative impacts to wetlands.

In another filing, the city of Port Isabel, the Sierra Club and two grassroots organizations filed two lawsuits challenging the FERC’s approval of the Annanova LNG and Texas LNG projects. The suits were filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for D.C. Circuit in Washington, D.C. The suits are asking that the federal permits be reviewed and overturned by a federal judge. The suits argue that FERC’s socioeconomic and environmental justice studies were flawed, as was FERC’s ruling that the LNG facilities are in the public interest. Those groups have a similar lawsuit filed against FERC’s approval of the Rio Grande LNG and Rio Bravo Pipeline. LNG opponents contend that the LNG facilities in Brownsville would create safety and environmental concerns, impact local fishermen, destroy wetlands, threaten wildlife, and hurt tourism. It would also create air pollution problems in the Rio Grande Valley, an impoverished area largely home to traditionally marginalized communities, disproportionately impacting the Latino community, a potential violation of federal law. Port Isabel, a Brownsville neighbor, is opposed to the LNG project and is also party in a separate lawsuit that is pending in Texas courts.

In August 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued a ruling that found problems with FERC's climate and environmental reviews for the Texas LNG export project as well as the Rio Grande LNG Terminal project. The court found that FERC did not go far enough in considering environmental justice and climate impacts in their approval of the two gas infrastructure projects. The federal appeals court remanded the orders authorising the projects but did not vacate them, finding that FERC "is likely to remedy any deficiencies" of its previous ruling on the projects when it reviews them on remand. The promoters of Rio Grande LNG and Texas LNG reacted to the ruling by suggesting that it will likely not end the commercial development of the facilities.