TotalEnergies completes PIPE investment in NextDecade Corporation and investment in $18.5 billion Rio Grande LNG Project

Client(s) TotalEnergies SE

Jones Day represented TotalEnergies in connection with its PIPE investment in NextDecade Corporation and investment in the Rio Grande LNG (RGLNG) Project, a planned natural gas liquefaction project in South Texas. The first phase of this project comprises three liquefaction trains with a total capacity of 17.5 million tons per annum and a planned capex of $14.8 billion. TotalEnergies will offtake 5.4 Mtpa of LNG from this initial phase, and also received rights to participate in future LNG train developments, as well as a proposed carbon capture and sequestration project. RGLNG is a joint venture that includes TotalEnergies, Global Infrastructure Partners, NextDecade Corporation, Mubadala Investment Company, and others. Contemporaneous with the closing of the JV investment by the partners, RGLNG made a positive final investment decision and provided a notice to proceed under the project’s EPC contract. The total debt and equity financing for the project is $18.5 billion, of which up to $5.9 billion represents the equity commitments of the joint venture partners.