US energy company NextDecade has entered into a sale and purchase agreement (SPA) with Japanese general trading company ITOCHU Corporation for the supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from its Rio Grande LNG export project in Brownsville, Texas.
Under the agreement, ITOCHU will purchase 1.0 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of LNG for a period of 15 years. The LNG will be indexed to Henry Hub on a free-on-board basis.
According to Matt Schatzman , NextDecade’s Chairman and CEO, ITOCHU is the company’s first Japanese customer.
“We look forward to providing ITOCHU and their customers with LNG, and we are actively working to reduce the carbon footprint of the Rio Grande LNG facility through our proposed carbon capture and storage project.”
NextDecade, through its subsidiaries Rio Grande LNG and NEXT Carbon Solutions, is developing an LNG export project in South Texas, the Rio Grande LNG , with a liquefaction capacity of 27 mtpa, associated with one of the largest capture and carbon storage (CCS) underway in North America.
The company is currently targeting a positive final investment decision (FID) on the first three trains of the project during the first quarter of 2023, with FIDs of its remaining trains to follow thereafter.
At the end of December 2022, the US company entered into a 20-year sale and purchase agreement with Portuguese energy company Galp for the purchase of 1.0 mtpa of LNG.
Now, ITOCHU will be joining NextDecade’s list of customers which also includes ExxonMobil , Guangdong Energy , China Gas , and ENN .