Eduardo Campirano has been the chief executive officer at the Port of Brownsville for 16 years. For the majority of those years, one grand project has rattled around as a possibility during his administration.

He recalled that 12 years ago, the earliest discussions began of a liquefied natural gas plant at the port. What began as both a distant dream and remote possibility has evolved over the years to one that has arrived at the Port’s doorstep. NextDecade is currently nearing an official announcement that it will build an $11 billion-plus LNG plant at the port. 

“You want to say we’re confident because we’ve spent so much time on it,” Campirano said recently at a NextDecade/Rio Grande LNG open house in Port Isabel. “At the same time, I want to see it happen after so many years of discussions.”

On The Right Path

The Rio Grande LNG would occupy nearly 1,000 acres on the northern side of the Port of Brownsville by state Highway 48 and just east of the port’s fishing harbor. Building the massive project would require the employment of 5,000 construction workers. When completed, it would employ as many as 400 permanent workers.

The proposed Brownsville LNG has cleared nearly all of the environmental regulatory hurdles while also prevailing in various legal actions attempting to block its construction. The last challenge – and it’s a major one – is NextDecade concluding that it has secured enough long-term deals and customer agreements to get the Brownsville LNG plant off to a rousing start. Seeking Alpha, a financial services company and publisher of market news, estimated in late March that NextDecade had signed agreements for 70 percent of Rio Grande LNG’s phase 1 capacity.

The energy company NextDecade has already opened a Brownsville office and is meanwhile making local staffing hires. At its mid-April open house in Port Isabel, the company worked to nurture local community support while being guarded about making any grand pronouncements.

“We will have an announcement on a final investment decision by the end of June,” said Susan Richardson, a senior director of communications for Rio Grande LNG. “We’ve been in collaborative discussions with stakeholders across the Valley and listening to their concerns.”

Vetting Issues

Just days after the Port Isabel open house came the news that Rio Grande’s proposed LNG export terminal was placed on the April meeting docket of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

In an April 20 meeting, the FERC board voted 3-1 to reaffirm its previous approval of the Brownsville LNG plant and its associated pipeline. Analysts say the FERC vote cleared a major obstacle for Rio Grande LNG and offers a clearer path to close pending agreements for June’s final investment decision. The federal board’s approval reaffirmed Campirano’s confidence in NextDecade’s capabilities to address every environmental issue put before it.

“All of these issues have been thoroughly vetted and revetted,” he said. “A multiplicity of individuals has looked at all of these issues. Nobody has a higher bar to reach than these LNGs.”

At the Port Isabel open house, Richardson indicated that Rio Grande would move quickly to begin construction if the project were to receive an affirmative investment decision in June. No construction timetable was given at the open house. A Reuters story last year pegged Rio Grande’s start of commercial operations beginning in 2026 if current plans were to proceed.

Overcoming Challenges

Environmental groups have a vastly different take on the proposed LNG plant at the Brownsville port.

The Sierra Club, Save RGV and the Shrimpers and Fishers of the RGV have contended the LNG and the pipeline that would bring natural gas to the facility from West Texas violates the Clean Water Act and is environmentally destructive. Many of the same claims these groups have made against the LNG were also lodged against the SpaceX project at nearby Boca Chica Beach.

The latter is today fully operational and it appears legal claims will likewise not block the LNG from proceeding. However, lack of necessary capital and long-term customer agreements are what could sidetrack Rio Grande LNG. The initial $11.4 billion investment for phase one of Rio Grande LNG would represent the largest single private sector announcement in Texas in 2023, Campirano said.

The port director said the project would catapult the Valley into being a major player in the energy sector and lead to vast infrastructure improvements in the region.

“We’ve never been in that discussion,” Campirano said of the magnitude of the proposed LNG investment. “It’s going to have a far-reaching impact on the community as a whole, not just the port. It will allow us to be with Corpus and everyone above us in terms of electrical infrastructure, load construction, all that drives this.”

For now, Campirano patiently waits to see if the project that would change the face of the Port of Brownsville will receive the final approval it needs to go forward. The impression given at the open house is that the goal is well within reach.