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NextDecade targets carbon neutrality

at proposed Rio Grande LNG project

ENERGY HOUSTON-BASED NextDecade announced processes that use proven technology. NextDec-
TRANSITION last week that it would be targeting carbon neu- ade said it was continuing to work on options for
trality at its proposed Rio Grande LNG project dealing with the remaining 10% or so of CO2e
in Brownsville, Texas. A final investment deci- emissions.
sion (FID) on Rio Grande LNG has not been “Natural gas has a critical role to play in the
announced yet, but NextDecade said during global energy transition to a low-carbon econ-
a virtual industry event on September 30 that omy, ensuring the security of energy supplies and
the company continued to aim for a decision in preserving high quality jobs in the United States
2021. and around the world,” NextDecade’s chairman
This comes after NextDecade delayed its and CEO, Matt Schatzman, stated. “Our work to
FID from 2020 amid the coronavirus (COVID- date confirms that reliable, competitively priced
19) pandemic and its impact on LNG demand LNG and responsible environmental steward-
as much of the world went into lockdown in ship are not mutually exclusive. A solution that
March and April. The company said in July that promises both is indeed eminently feasible with This would be
the technologies it had initially selected for Rio the thoughtful use of existing technologies and
Grande had evolved since regulatory filings were the application of our proprietary processes.” achieved through
lodged with the US Federal Energy Regulatory The company’s carbon neutrality target is
Commission (FERC) in 2015-16. As a result, it being touted as the energy transition gath- a combination of
was changing the design of the liquefaction ter- ers momentum, and various LNG players are
minal, which would now have five trains instead increasingly trying to talk up their environmen- carbon capture
of six, but would still have a total capacity of tal credentials. Projects that have been proposed and storage
27mn tonnes per year (tpy). but not yet sanctioned are facing an increasingly
NextDecade said at the time that as well as oversupplied market and are trying to gain an (CCS) and what
being able to produce more LNG, these trains edge over their competitors. NextDecade will
would have 21% lower carbon dioxide equiva- likely be hoping that the promise of low-carbon the company
lent (CO2e) emissions compared with the orig- – and eventually carbon-neutral – LNG can win
inal design. However, the company has since over the additional buyers it is seeking to sign describes as
continued to work on “dramatically” reduc- commercial agreements that would underpin proprietary
ing emissions from future operations. In early its FID. The company has previously said it has
October it said it had evaluated multiple techni- a supply agreement with Royal Dutch Shell for processes.
cal solutions to this, and had established how to 2mn tpy of LNG over a 20-year period, and it
reduce CO2e emissions at Rio Grande LNG by can achieve FID with supply deals covering an
around 90%. additional 9mn tpy of capacity at Rio Grande.
This would be achieved through a combi- The initial FID, if it is underpinned by these con-
nation of carbon capture and storage (CCS) tracted volumes at this level, would likely cover
and what the company describes as proprietary two or three trains at the terminal.™

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