Rio Grande LNG pushes for round-the-clock construction and more workers as global supply tightens​

The shortage of global LNG supply caused by the war in the Middle East prompted Houston-based NextDecade Corp. to ask federal regulators to kick construction into high gear — adding thousands more workers and a night shift, records show. 

“These measures will ensure that the Rio Grande entities are able to produce LNG as quickly and safely as possible,” according to Rio Grande LNG, the NextDecade Corp. subsidiary in Brownsville. “We are currently in an unprecedented situation where significant LNG supply has been taken off the market due to hostilities in the Middle East.” 

Rio Grande LNG is seeking approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for a peak workforce of 7,500 — 6,500 of whom would work during the daylight hours and 1,000 more during the night shift, up from 5,225 workers, according to its request. The goal is for those workers to complete natural gas liquefaction trains 1 through 5, and construction would be happening 24 hours a day until completion in 2027. 

The company is seeking a decision by the regulator by April 10. 

Rio Grande LNG expects to spend $30 billion for trains one through five along the Brownsville Shipping Channel. 

The sixth train is in the permitting process. Trains seven and eight are in planning and development. The export terminal has space for 10 liquefaction trains on a nearly 1,000-acre site, with a capacity of 60 million tonnes of LNG per year. 

A liquefaction train is a processing facility that takes natural gas from a pipeline and both compresses and supercools it. The final product, liquefied natural gas (LNG), is a supercooled product often exported overseas as an alternative energy source to nations without domestic energy extraction industries, such as many European and Asian countries. 

NextDecade already has several long-term contracts to export LNG in various volumes to companies such as ConocoPhillips, JERA, and EQT Corporation.