Staff at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has issued a final supplemental environmental impact statement (SEIS) for NextDecade Corp.’s Rio Grande LNG and the associated pipeline project owned by Enbridge Inc. FERC’s ongoing review covers the first five of eight liquefaction trains planned for the project. Trains I to V each have a designed capacity of 5.4 million metric tons per annum (MMtpa). Meanwhile the Rio Bravo Pipeline is designed to carry up to 4.5 billion cubic feet a day of natural gas from the Agua Dulce supply area to the liquefaction facility in Brownsville, Texas. The new SEIS is in response to last year’s remand by the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit of FERC’s reauthorization of the projects, according to a FERC statement online. In August 2024, the court vacated FERC’s order issued April 2023 because the commission had not issued a SEIS in reauthorizing the project. Last year’s court ruling was the second remand for the project. On March 18, 2025, NextDecade said the court revised its August 2024 ruling and remanded without vacatur FERC’s order. In the new SEIS, “FERC staff conclude that… communities in the areas near the Rio Grande LNG Terminal may experience significant cumulative visual impacts”, FERC said last week. “Specific to air quality impacts, we clarify that the project’s air quality impacts on communities with environmental justice concerns would also be disproportionate and adverse; however, RG LNG’s air quality analysis demonstrates that air quality impacts near the Rio Grande LNG Terminal would not be significant, with the exception of two discrete areas just north of the LNG terminal where the cumulative model shows an exceedance of the annual PM2.5 SIL, and thus we conclude air quality impacts in those areas would be significant.  “Specific to the RB Pipeline, the revised air quality dispersion modeling that shows

The government of British Columbia has signed a new $145 million (CAD 200 million) contribution agreement with the Haisla Nation to support the development of the Cedar LNG facility with renewable electricity. The Cedar LNG project is a floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal that will be located near Kitimat within the territory of Haisla Nation, to be constructed in partnership with Pembina Pipeline Corporation. Cedar LNG is scheduled to be operational in late 2028. The agreement aims to support the Haisla Nation in building a 287-kilovolt transmission line, a new substation, new distribution lines and nearshore electrification, all aimed at providing the infrastructure to enable the project to run on renewable electricity, according to a statement from the provincial government. The $200 million provided will add to the $200 million in federal support for the facility announced earlier in the year, the statement said. The facility, which will be built on tribal waters on Canada’s West Coast, will be powered by renewable electricity from utility BC Hydro. It is planned to have a capacity of 3.3 million metric tons per annum. Coastal GasLink Pipeline LP has agreed to supply 400 million cubic feet per day of natural gas via its pipeline, with feed gas coming from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin, according to an earlier statement. “By supporting Haisla Nation to power Cedar LNG with clean B.C. electricity, we’re taking another step in building a stronger economy that’s less exposed to reckless decisions made in the White House,” British Columbia Premier David Eby said. “As the world’s first Indigenous majority-owned LNG facility, Cedar LNG will create more good jobs that support families and give young people a future in local communities and throughout the North, all while generating revenue for the things we all count on, like better health

Weatherford International plc said it was awarded a “significant” contract to deliver managed pressure drilling (MPD) services for the Trion project, a deepwater oil production project in Mexico operated by Woodside Petróleo Operaciones de Mexico. The multi-year contract includes MPD services for an initial eight wells with the potential to expand to 24 wells, the company said in a news release. Financial terms of the contract were not disclosed. As part of the project, Weatherford said it plans to deploy its Victus intelligent MPD system, which it describes as a solution “designed to enhance drilling safety, efficiency, and performance”. The solution features algorithm-driven pressure control, real-time downhole data for automated responses, and the industry’s first field-proven deepwater riser system for floating rigs, according to the release. The Trion project is located in deepwater about 8,200 feet (2,500 meters) in the Gulf of America, approximately 112 miles (180 kilometers) east of the coast of Tamaulipas and 18.6 miles (30 kilometers) south of the US-Mexico maritime border, the release said. Trion is a joint venture between Woodside Petróleo Operaciones de México, S. de R.L. de C.V., who serves as the operator with a 60 percent interest, and Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) with 40 percent. The contract award “reinforces Weatherford’s market leadership in high-performance MPD and expands its presence in Mexico’s offshore energy sector,” the company said. Weatherford President and CEO Girish Saligram said, “We are proud to support Woodside Energy on this historic project. The Trion development represents a defining moment for Mexico’s energy sector, and Weatherford is honored to contribute with trusted MPD technologies that improve safety, efficiency, and well delivery. This award further strengthens our position as a trusted partner for complex offshore operations”. Second-Quarter Results In the second quarter, Weatherford reported revenue of $1.2 billion, an increase of 1 percent

The European Union’s pledge of up to $750 billion in purchases of U.S. energy products over three years is “a figure widely viewed as unrealistic”, a gas and LNG market update from Masanori Odaka, Rystad Energy Vice President, Gas & LNG Research, outlined. Rystad’s market update highlighted that European gas prices opened higher last week following the trade deal between the U.S. and the European Union, “which established a 15 percent tariff on most EU imports – excluding the existing 50 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum, as well as several other sectors”. “As part of the agreement, the EU pledged up to $750 billion in purchases of U.S. energy products over three years – mainly LNG, oil and nuclear technology,” the update, which was sent to Rigzone by the Rystad team recently, pointed out. The update noted that the $750 billion target has drawn widespread skepticism. “In 2024, the EU imported 37.82 million tons of U.S. LNG, equivalent to a 43 percent share in the EU’s LNG imports,” Rystad’s update said. “So far in 2025, the U.S. share of EU LNG imports has risen to 55.5 percent, equivalent to 35.6 million tons,” it added. “If this exceptionally high share is sustained and the EU imports a total ranging from 100 million tons to 120 million tons this year, it would translate to approximately $28 to $34 billion in U.S. LNG sales, assuming an average price of $11 per million British thermal units (MMBtu),” it continued. Rystad’s update went on to state that, with global LNG supply expected to grow, prices are widely forecast to decline. “This means the EU would need to import significantly higher volumes just to maintain current spending levels – let alone hit $250 billion annually,” the update noted. Rystad’s update stated that other American energy commodities such

A 5.2 percent decline in coal-fired power generation in the Philippines in the first half of 2025 has put the Southeast Asian country on course for its first annual decline in coal power production in decades. This would be due to the growth of renewable energy rather than an increase in liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports, the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) said. “Recent media coverage has asserted that growing LNG imports are responsible for coal’s decline, reciting oil and gas industry logic that Asia’s energy transition hinges on replacing one fossil fuel (coal) with another (LNG)”, the United States-based IEEFA said. “However, these conclusions overlook basic trends in the Philippines’ energy market. Renewables have rapidly outpaced the growth of LNG, while gas-fired power generation remains below historical levels. “Outages at existing coal facilities provide a better explanation for declining coal generation than the growth of LNG, which is significantly more expensive than renewables and other energy resources”. Based on an analysis of government data, the IEEFA said the country did not add any new greenfield gas or LNG-fired generation capacity between 2017 and 2024. “The most recent increase in the country’s gas capacity was in 2022, when several existing facilities were uprated”, the IEEFA said, citing data from the nation’s Department of Energy (DOE). On the other hand the Philippines installed over one gigawatt (GW) of solar capacity in 2024 alone. “This growth outpaced all other asset classes last year and previous projections for solar deployment. Centralized government auctions, among other government policies, are driving project developments”, the IEEFA said. Last month the DOE said it had awarded geothermal, hydropower and pumped storage capacities totaling about 6.68 GW. It also launched an auction offering over 10 GW of solar and wind, targeted for commercial operations 2026-29, and a

When a design team hands off a drawing package for construction, the work isn’t measured only in megawatts delivered or miles of line energized. The stakes are human. Personal experience working in the field on a recent transmission line project supports this assertion. Collaboration with craft labor and general foremen during a multiyear engineer-procure-construct (EPC) project reinforced the value of understanding what is necessary for successful project delivery. Successful construction means more than creating a flow of electricity for consumers; it’s also a matter of seeing that everyone involved in the project goes home safe to their families each day. Designing from this perspective requires engineers to frame their decisions around a central question: “How will this get built?” This approach means moving beyond just designing for code compliance and final configurations. It demands attention to the nuances of outage planning and phased construction, including but not limited to access road limitations, construction package clarity and the real-time dynamics of jobsite decision-making. Engineering for every phase, not just the end A 55-mile project rebuilding existing double-circuit 230-kV lines into new tubular steel 345-kV lines involved seven major construction segments spread across three years. Within tight nonreturnable outage windows, temporary configurations were just as critical as the permanent installation. These temporary configurations were carefully planned; however, it took the knowledge of a foreman to recognize that changes would need to be made to one of these temporary configurations for safer wire pulling. The foreman raised concerns about pulling new conductor through a deadend structure that supported an energized temporary tie. Although required clearance would be met once installed, the setup introduced high safety risk from induced voltage for work crews. Because a design engineer was on-site, the team was able to develop a new shoo-fly configuration well ahead of wire-pulling efforts,