A Texas regulatory agency has approved a required air permit for a planned liquefied natural gas (LNG) liquefaction/export facility in Brownsville in South Texas, Kallanish Energy reports.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality earlier this week issued the permit that allows construction and operation of the plant to Texas LNG Brownsville LLC.

The company told the local media that a final investment decision was expected in 2021 and the facility could begin operations in 2025.

It called the state approval “another important regulatory milestone,” in a statement.

Last November, the project had won approval of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

The state agency set stricter pollution limits from hot-air heaters and oxidizers at the facility.

Those restrictions are similar to requirements at Freeport LNG and the proposed Rio Grande LNG in Brownsville.

Texas LNG is the smallest of three planned LNG facilities in Brownsville, Texas.

The facility with two trains or units would be built on 625 acres on the Brownsville Ship Channel.

It would produce 4 million metric tons of LNG per year from about 300 million cubic feet of natural gas per day.

The facility would be built in two phases. Phase 2 would boost production by 2 million tons of LNG per year.

The plant would rely on electric motors to drive refrigeration compressors and that will sharply reduce air emissions.

Company officials have said the company has non-binding agreements with five potential LNG buyers in China, two in Southeast Asia and one in Europe.

The managing partner is the Glenfarne Group through affiliate Alder Midstream. Third Point LLC is a financial sponsor, along with Samsung Engineering Co. Ltd., a minority equity partner.

The others Brownsville LNG projects are Exelon Corp.’s Annova Brownsville and Next Decade’s Rio Grande LNG.

The three plants together would produce about 38 million tons of LNG per year and are expected to result in Brownsville seeing about 470 tanker shipments per year of LNG for export.

They would process natural gas from the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas and the Permian Basin in West Texas and New Mexico.

This post appeared first on Kallanish Energy News.