Funding for the first three trains of the Rio Grande LNG plant in Brownsville, southern Texas, has been confirmed.

NextDecade’s facility will have a liquefaction capacity of 27 million tonnes a year and will be built by US engineer Bechtel under the turnkey EPC contract that was first announced in 2019.

The $18.4bn cost of the scheme includes $12bn for Bechtel, $3.1bn in financing and interest, $2.3bn for “owner’s costs and contingencies” and $600m for the installation of utilities.

Some $5.9bn of the cast will come from Global Infrastructure Partners, formed by France’s TotalEnergies, as well as investment companies GIC of Singapore and Mubadala of the UAE.

LNG sale and purchase agreements have been signed with ExxonMobil, Guangdong Energy Group, Shell, TotalEnergies and others.

Matt Schatzman, NextDecade’s chairman, said: “I want to specifically recognise the Rio Grande Valley community, the Port of Brownsville and the countless leaders and officials at the local, state and federal levels that have supported us throughout the development.”