Texas company withdraws FERC application for large CCS project

By Carlos Anchondo | 08/21/2024 06:35 AM EDT

The project on a proposed gas terminal would have been one of the largest carbon capture initiatives in North America.

A rendering of the proposed Rio Grande LNG facility.

A rendering of the proposed Rio Grande LNG facility is shown. Rio Grande LNG

The developer of a natural gas export terminal in South Texas scrapped plans Tuesday with federal regulators to equip the facility with carbon capture equipment, according to a company announcement.

NextDecade CEO Matt Schatzman said a subsidiary of the Houston-based company withdrew an application at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for the proposed carbon capture and storage (CCS) project at the Rio Grande LNG facility, which is slated to be located along the Brownsville Ship Channel that connects to the Gulf of Mexico.

The project at the Rio Grande LNG plant “is not sufficiently developed to allow FERC review to continue at this time,” Schatzman said in a news release.

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NextDecade announced carbon capture plans for the Rio Grande terminal in 2021. At the time, the company said the project would be one of the largest carbon capture and storage initiatives in North America, allowing for storage of more than 5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually.

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