LNG

The Mexican Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) plans to renegotiate contracts with North American pipeline developers such as TransCanada Corp. and a subsidiary of US utility Sempra Energy as it attempts to downgrade pipeline natural gas and LNG and to use other fuels to meet increasing power demand.

Mexico is seeking more long-term natural gas supplies from the US Gulf Coast in competition to expected rising demand for feed-gas from large-scale LNG liquefaction and export projects under development, with the Mexicans issuing a request for offers for long-term supplies of natural gas at a West Texas hub.

Mexico is continuing to import growing volumes of pipeline natural gas and LNG as monthly shipments increased by more than 13 percent from the US cross-border pipelines and in the form of cargoes from the Sabine Pass liquefaction plant in the US state of Louisiana and other LNG exporting countries such as Nigeria and Peru.

Sempra Energy chose Franco-US engineering group TechnipFMC and US company Kiewit as the engineering, procurement, construction contractors for transforming the California utility’s LNG import terminal at Costa Azul in northern Mexico into a medium-scale export plant.

Mexico, the largest customer for US LNG with 65 cargoes received since 2016 and other shipments brought in from nations such as Nigeria, is planning a tender for strategic storage of natural gas at four depleted oil and gas reservoirs.

Mexico said that was developing a set of privately-owned pipelines and other natural gas projects, including a floating LNG import facility, as part of a historic build-out of the nation’s gas infrastructure.

March 27 (LNGJ)- Mexico is holding its latest upstream auction of exploration and production licences in areas of the Gulf of Mexico with high natural gas prospects. It is offering 35 blocks under production-sharing contracts in the southern waters of the Gulf. The Mexican authorities have authorized 21 companies to take part in the auction from 14 countries. The blocks are divided into three sectors: the Burgos Basin (blocks 1-14), the Tampico-Misantla and Veracruz Basins (blocks 15-27) and the southeastern basins (blocks 28-35). In addition to the US oil majors and European companies such as Royal Dutch Shell, there are also bidders from companies in Spain, Germany, Argentina, India and Malaysia.

LNG importer Mexico is now offering limited transparency in natural gas pricing showing that its domestic gas was at $4.10 per million British thermal units compared with $2.92 per MMBtu in the US and around $5.70 per MMBtu in Europe.