Although investment in Mexico’s energy sector has slowed, the country’s demand for U.S. natural gas continues to increase and its gas infrastructure continues to grow, albeit in spurts. Mexico GPI of NGI put together a list of five pending projects to watch in 2022:

Tula, Villa de Reyes

TC Energy Corp.’s long-delayed Tula and Villa de Reyes pipelines, each with a capacity of 886 million cubic feet per day, will increase traffic volumes on the Texas-Tuxpan Sur marine pipeline by 2.6 billion cubic feet per day, which entered commercial service. end of 2019.

Stanley Chapman III of TC, president of the United States and Mexico pipelines, said this month that TC had reached “a breakthrough” in arbitration talks with lead shipper Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE) over Villa de Reyes and Tula.

TC and CFE signed a memorandum of understanding to advance the arbitration process, complete stalled projects and consolidate their underlying natural gas transportation contracts under a single tariff agreement with a level toll .

TC aims to have the Villa de Reyes pipeline fully operational by mid-2022, “provided we can continue to make progress in accessing the final sections of land,” Chapman told shareholders on Dec. 1 during the company’s annual investor conference. daytime. As for Tula, TC and CFE continue to work on the pending arbitration proceedings and assess rerouting alternatives to complete the project.

The 171-mile Tula pipeline will connect to the 2.6 Bcf / d Texas-Tuxpan Sur offshore pipeline, allowing U.S. gas imports to reach the 261-mile Villa de Reyes pipeline.

Villa de Reyes, in turn, will connect to Tula as well as the Tamazunchale gas pipeline already in service to supply gas to power generation and industrial facilities in central Mexico.

New offshore pipeline?

TC Energy Corp. and Mexican state-owned electricity company Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE) have confirmed that they are in talks to jointly develop a new offshore gas pipeline to supply the Yucatán Peninsula, which faces chronic gas shortages due to the stagnation of national production.

While the project has yet to be sanctioned, every company has publicly expressed interest and each has said the required capital investment could exceed $ 4 billion if it goes ahead.

The project “will allow CFE to transport natural gas from the basins of the southern United States to the Yucatán Peninsula, supplying existing and new power plants in Mérida and Valladolid as well as the new Trans-Isthmus pipeline, and by providing redundancy and operational flexibility at the Dos Bocas refinery in Tabasco, ”CFE said last month.

ECA LNG Phase 1

Energia Costa Azul’s (ECA) 3.25 million metric tons / year (mmty) Phase 1 liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal at Sempra was the only LNG export project to result in a final investment decision in 2021.

Justin Bird, CEO of Sempra Infrastructure, told analysts on Sempra’s third quarter conference call that “engineering, equipment, fabrication and site preparation are well advanced” in the ECA Phase 1 project.

San Diego-based Sempra is targeting the project’s first LNG at the port of Ensenada, Baja California, by the end of 2024.

A second phase of 12 mmty is also under discussion, as well as the Vista Pacifico export terminal of 3-4 mmty envisaged for Topolobampo, in the state of Sinaloa.

MPL

Sempra is not alone in continuing LNG exports from Mexico’s Pacific coast. Mexico Pacific Limited LLC (MPL) CEO Doug Shanda said Mexico GPI of NGI recently that the company was negotiating 22mmty in binding offtake agreements with Asian buyers for MPL’s planned LNG regasification terminal at Puerto Libertad in Sonora state. Shanda said MPL aims to reach binding offtake agreements for the first two trains of the project by the end of the year and make a final investment decision in early 2022.

The first two trains would have a combined capacity of 9.4 mmty.

Guaymas-El Oro

Sempra remains at a standstill over the Guaymas-El Oro section of its Sonora pipeline system in northwestern Mexico. The pipeline entered service in 2015, but has been out of service since it was damaged in 2017.

The main shipper CFE also requested the cancellation of the contractual clauses obliging it to make fixed capacity payments in the event of force majeure declared by Infraestructura Energética Nova (IEnova), a subsidiary of Sempra.

“Subsequently, IEnova and… CFE have agreed to extend the start date of the service on several occasions, most recently until March 14, 2022,” IEnova said in its 10-Q file for the third quarter of 2021 with the Securities and Exchange Commission.