LNG’s big pitch to the next-generation workforce in the Rio Grande Valley

Nearly 15 years ago, the first federal filings describing a liquefied natural gas hub in the Rio Grande Valley went public. Several LNG operators raced to complete the environmental permitting process for years and economic incentives were awarded to ensure investment in the local community would come to fruition. 

Now that concept of liquefied natural gas processing — where natural gas extracted from underground is sent via pipeline to a liquefaction plant where it’s supercooled, reducing its volume without physical compression — is closer than ever to reality as the first project  is expected to start up in 2027.

LNG companies, such as Houston-based NextDecade, will need not just the initial workforce of several hundred employees to run the plants, but a future pipeline of talent for when those workers retire someday. 

But the average age of workers in the mining, quarrying, and oil and gas sector skews older, about 43 years old, which means there’s an expected tsunami of retirements in the coming years. In construction, the average age is 42 years old, and in manufacturing, it depends on the subsector, but it’s still mid-40s based on Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates in 2025.