NextDecade funds mass LNG expansion
The liquefied natural gas provider has had a transformative 15 years. The company’s two latest deals made a big impact on the project finance market in 2025. By Alison Healey.
A year like NextDecade had could not have been imagined this time last year, as approvals for new LNG languished under the Biden administration. But new federal enthusiasm for oil and gas and favourable regulatory and financing market conditions enabled the company to raise two major project financing transactions back-to-back, buoyed by a replicable model and the company’s use of mid-scale, modular liquefaction technology.
NextDecade developed into a major international exporter of LNG in a span of 15 years. The company was founded in 2010 in The Woodlands, Texas by Kathleen Eisbrenner. She had previously served as executive vice-president at Royal Dutch Shell, where she was responsible for the management of the company’s global LNG portfolio and LNG trading business. Before that she was the founder and chief executive officer of Excelerate Energy, focused on developing the floating storage regasification unit. She also held various senior management positions at El Paso Energy.
Eisbrenner led NextDecade to its listing on the Nasdaq in July 2017. She served jointly as chairman and chief executive officer until February 2018 and remained as NextDecade’s chairman of the board of directors until her death in 2019.
Harmony Merger Corp was incorporated as a blank-cheque company in 2014 and in 2017 signed a definitive merger agreement with NextDecade. The reverse merger arrangement led to NextDecade becoming a publicly traded company on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol NEXT effective July 24 2017.
Matt Schatzman has served as chief executive officer of NextDecade Corporation since 2018 and was elected chairman of the board of directors in 2019. He joined the company as president and a member of the board of directors in 2017. Schatzman has over three decades of experience in the energy industry, previously serving as executive vice-president of global energy marketing and shipping and member of the group executive committee at BG where he was responsible for the company’s global marketing, trading and shipping activities for LNG, crude oil and natural gas. He also held senior executive roles at Dynegy and started his career at Transco Pipeline, a subsidiary of Williams. Under Schatzman’s leadership NextDecade developed, financed and is constructing Rio Grande LNG, an approximately 30m tonnes per year LNG export facility in Brownsville, Texas.
Other key leaders include Tarik Skeik who joined NextDecade as chief operating officer in July 2024. He has over 20 years of experience delivering mega projects in LNG, oil and petrochemicals working across North America, the Middle East and Asia. Before joining NextDecade Skeik was an executive at ExxonMobil where he led the completion and startup of six greenfield assets exceeding US$50bn in investment. Some of the projects he spearheaded include Huizhou Chemicals Complex in China, Gulf Coast Growth Ventures in the US., Banyu Urip in Indonesia, Kearl Expansion in Canada, and QatarGas 2 in Qatar.
NextDecade’s chief marketing officer James MacTaggart is based in Singapore. He has over 25 years' experience delivering projects in the LNG and natural gas industry, working across Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the US. Prior to joining NextDecade MacTaggart worked for more than 20 years with Shell including a role as general manager of Shell’s gas and LNG markets business in Asia, India, and the Middle East where he set up Shell’s energy trading business in India.
In October 2025 chief financial officer Brent Wahl resigned to join a digital infrastructure company. The company appointed Mike Mott, senior vice-president of enterprise transformation, as interim CFO as it conducts a search for a permanent successor. Wahl has agreed to work as a consultant until the end of the year. He has worked at NextDecade for more than six years and has been CFO since 2021.
The financing evolution
NextDecade’s early financing efforts included hiring Societe Generale and Macquarie Capital to act as joint financial advisers in conjunction with the anticipated debt and equity for the Rio Grande LNG project and its Rio Bravo pipeline, which was later sold to Enbridge.
In 2018 the company agreed to sell an undisclosed amount of its Series B convertible preferred stock to funds managed by BlackRock. In October 2019 Abu Dhabi's Mubadala Investment Company agreed to purchase US$50m of NextDecade stock in a private placement. NextDecade agreed to issue the stock to Mubadala at US$6.27 per share. Mubadala received one seat on NextDecade's board and was given the right to contribute a certain amount of project-level capital when NextDecade reached final investment decision on Rio Grande LNG.
“We strongly believe that the Rio Grande LNG project is optimally positioned to provide a highly competitive export route for the abundant gas resources of the Permian Basin and a compelling commercial proposition for LNG customers, Permian producers and NextDecade shareholders alike,” said Mubadala's midstream executive director Khalifa Al Romaithi.
In June 2019, one of the company’s most important relationships was cemented in an initial contract as it awarded US$9.6bn construction contracts to Bechtel for Rio Grande LNG. At the time NextDecade was seeking final permission to build a pipeline and six production units capable of making up to 27m tonnes of LNG per year. Bechtel agreed to construct three production units with a capacity of up to 17.6m tonnes of LNG per year for US$543/tonne. The construction schedule stipulated that the three units, two storage tanks and two marine berths would be in operation by 2023.
In 2023, NextDecade reached final investment decision on Phase 1 of Rio Grande which includes trains 1-3. Construction started, backed by a US$18.4bn project financing that was the largest greenfield energy project financing in US history at the time.
At that time NextDecade’s principal equity holders included funds managed by York Capital Management, Valinor Management, and Halcyon Capital Management, who together owned a majority interest. For Phase 1 the company closed on US$11.6bn in non-recourse bank financing with MUFG as administrative agent and a US$700m private placement led by MUFG and RBC.
The bank facilities included US$11.1bn in construction term loans and a US$500m working capital facility, priced at SOFR plus a margin of 225bp or the base rate plus a margin of 125bp, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The notes priced at 6.67% and mature in 2033. Following close the company has opportunistically tapped both the bond and loan markets to refinance portions of the original Rio Grande financing.
The Rio Grande project suffered a setback in August 2024 when the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit overturned a decision from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, reversing a prior approval and adding a layer of regulatory uncertainty to Rio Grande and other sponsor’s projects. The appeals court reversed an approval it issued in 2023 after finding FERC made a mistake by not issuing supplemental environmental impact statements with updated assessments of how the projects would affect environmental justice communities.
However, in March 2025, NextDecade was awarded a favourable court decision as the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit revised its August 2024 judgment.
“We are pleased with today’s revised court judgment, which ensures construction at the Rio Grande LNG facility will not be impacted by the court,” said Schatzman. “This is an excellent outcome for NextDecade’s shareholders, our partners in the project, the local community, and our customers. We look forward to continuing our work with FERC through the reauthorisation process for our project.”
In the months that followed, NextDecade pursued the close of financing for the Rio Grande expansion with the expectation that a transaction for train 4 would be followed closely by similar one for train 5. On September 9 2025, Rio Grande LNG Train 4, a subsidiary of NextDecade, Global Infrastructure Partners, TotalEnergies GIC, and Mubadala reached financial investment decision to construct train 4 with 6m tonnes per year of capacity and first commercial delivery date in 2H 2030. At FID the project was supported by 4.6m tonnes per year of 20-year LNG sale and purchase agreements with ADNOC, TotalEnergies and Aramco.
The US$6.7bn of total project costs for Train 4 was funded with US$3.85bn in asset level debt and US$2.83bn in equity, representing a 60/40 debt-to-equity split. The equity included US$1.13bn from NextDecade and US$1.7bn from its partners. Concurrent with the Train 4 facility, NEXT also announced a US$734m five-year facility to backstop equity, support letters of credit and other project obligations.
In a little over a month after train 4 closed NextDecade reached FID on train 5 at Rio Grande LNG, closed financial transactions to fully fund train 5 and its infrastructure, and issued full notice to proceed to Bechtel for train 5 which has expected LNG production capacity of approximately 6m tonnes per year. The moves brought total expected LNG production capacity under construction at Rio Grande LNG to approximately 30m tonnes per year.
Train 5 is commercially supported by 4.5m tonnes per year over 20-year LNG sale and purchase agreements with JERA, EQT, and ConocoPhillips. The guaranteed substantial completion date for train 5, as well as the date of first commercial delivery under the train 5 LNG SPAs is anticipated in the first half of 2031.
Like train 4, project costs for train 5 and related infrastructure are expected to total approximately US$6.7bn. The financing comprised a US$3.59bn term loan; US$500m private placement notes at Rio Grande LNG Train 5; US$1.29bn in equity commitments from NextDecade; and US$1.29bn in equity commitments from partners Global Infrastructure Partners, GIC, and Mubadala.
NextDecade received US$117m at financial close for development costs and management services. The company has an initial economic interest of 50% in train 5, which will increase to 70% after the investors achieve certain returns on their investments. NextDecade used US$233m of cash on hand and entered into a total of US$1.33bn in term loans to finance its portion of train 5 equity funding commitments. The FinCo loan is a US$729m delayed draw bank facility that bears interest at SOFR plus 350bp. The SuperFinCo Loan is a US$600m term loan, with proceeds disbursed at financial close. The SuperFinCo loan bears interest at 13%, with interest payable in kind until one year after Train 5 completion and is callable at par beginning in September 2030.
Following the close of the financing for the Rio Grande expansion, ADNOC's XRG unit in September closed its acquisition of an 11.7% equity stake in Phase 1 of Rio Grande by purchasing a portion of Global Infrastructure Partners' stake in the project. The sale of the partial stake reduces GIP's holding to approximately 46% of Rio Grande Phase 1. The investment in Rio Grande LNG advanced XRG’s strategy to build a global gas and LNG business to meet structural demand from industry, AI, and broader economic growth. The transaction represented the company’s first gas infrastructure investment in the US, and reflects XRG’s long-term investment plans.
The transaction was undertaken through an investment vehicle of GIP, with XRG acquiring a portion of GIP’s existing stake. XRG’s parent company ADNOC also entered into a 20-year LNG offtake agreement for 1.9mtpa from Rio Grande LNG Train 4.
New trains
Schatzman has discussed further ambitions at Rio Grande beyond the newly financed expansion.
“Our expected 30Mtpa of liquefaction production capacity from Rio Grande LNG trains 1 through 5 will place us at approximately 5% of projected global liquefaction supply in the early 2030s, and we are focused on potentially doubling LNG capacity at the site, starting with the development and permitting of trains 6 through 8.” He noted there is room at the site for 10 trains.
Earlier this year, NextDecade started the pre-filing process with FERC for an expansion of Rio Grande LNG in Texas that includes a sixth liquefaction train and an additional marine berth. The company expects to file a full application for the expansion with FERC in 2026.
