NextDecade Corp. and Itochu Corp. signed a 15-year sale and purchase agreement to supply Itochu with 1 million tonnes per annum of LNG from NextDecade's Rio Grande LNG export project, the companies announced in a press release on Jan. 19.

Located in Brownsville, Texas, the facility will export the LNG LNG indexed to Henry Hub on a free-on-board basis, according to the release.

NextDecade hopes to reach final investment decision on the first three trains from the Rio Grande LNG project during first-quarter 2023 and reach the remaining final investment decisions for the remaining trains at a later time.

"We are honored to have Itochu Corporation as our first Japanese customer," NextDecade chairman and CEO Matt Schatzman commented in the release. “We look forward to providing Itochu and their customers with LNG, and we are actively working to reduce the carbon footprint of the Rio Grande LNG facility through our proposed carbon capture and storage project.”