Oct. 2, 2026 · Rio Grande LNG's $31.8 billion checks out. Here is what it buys, and who is fighting it.

October 2, 2026 · Local economy · Series, part 3

Rio Grande LNG's $31.8 billion checks out. Here is what it buys, and who is fighting it.

A crane barge repairing the rock jetty at the entrance to the Brownsville Ship Channel — The entrance to the Brownsville Ship Channel, which links the Port of Brownsville to the Gulf, during jetty repairs in 2013. Photo: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Cameron County lists Rio Grande LNG, the natural gas export terminal NextDecade is building at the Port of Brownsville, as its biggest project by far, at $31.8 billion. That number holds up: it is what NextDecade's three financing deals add up to.

Phase 1, Trains 1 to 3 (July 2023): $18.4 billion in total project financing, for about 17.6 million tonnes a year of capacity. Bechtel holds a contract of about $12 billion to build it.
Train 4 (September 2025): about $6.7 billion, about 6 million tonnes a year, expected in the second half of 2030.
Train 5 (October 2025): about $6.7 billion, about 6 million tonnes a year, expected in the first half of 2031.

NextDecade says that puts about 30 million tonnes a year under construction. One caveat: these are total financing figures, which include interest, fees and contingencies, so they are not the same as money spent in Cameron County.

Where it stands: in its second-quarter 2026 update, NextDecade said that as of June, Trains 1 and 2 were 74 percent complete (construction itself at 58.9 percent) and ahead of schedule, with first LNG from Train 1 expected in the first half of 2027.

The fight: the project's federal permits have been in court for years. In 2025 the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission reaffirmed its approval of the terminal and the Rio Bravo pipeline. In December 2025 the South Texas Environmental Justice Network, the Sierra Club and the City of Port Isabel challenged that approval in the federal appeals court in Washington, arguing that FERC underplayed the air pollution and did not properly review the plant's carbon capture plans. A tribal chairman quoted in the groups' announcement says FERC never consulted the Esto'k Gna Tribal Nation. Briefing in the case finished in July 2026, and no ruling has been posted on the docket.

Next in the series: Texas LNG, the second export terminal at the port, where the county's $2.8 billion already looks low next to the company's own financing.

Sources: NextDecade Phase 1 announcement, July 2023 · NextDecade Train 4 release (SEC), Sept. 2025 · NextDecade Train 5 release (SEC), Oct. 2025 · NextDecade second-quarter 2026 update · Venable on FERC's 2025 order · Earthjustice, Dec. 15, 2025 · Court docket, D.C. Cir. No. 25-1284 (CourtListener) · Cameron County Economic Development, Sept. 28 · U.S. Army Corps of Engineers photo

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