Mexico Will Access Natural Gas From Texas at No Additional Cost

Mexico will produce cheaper electricity by bringing natural gas from Texas and the great advantage is that it will not spend any money due to an initiative that seeks to rehabilitate the obsolete PEMEX infrastructure.

Rosanety Barrios, energy expert and independent analyst, explained to the goverment that CFE lost US$2.6 billion last year in savings due to the renegotiation of natural gas agreements. Nevertheless, Mexico has the chance to save tens of billions more between 2021 and 2028 if the new access to Waha gas is used correctly. The country could reduce its power subsidies to CFE and transportation and energy costs by implementing functional infrastructure.

In an interview with El Sol de León, Horacio Zárate, President of National Council for Energy and Petrchemistry, said that an agreement had been reached with Mirage Energy Corporation to import natural gas from Texas. The project will need an initial investment of US$4 billion that neither the Mexican nor the US government will provide.

Mirage Energy Corportation will provide the capital and technical equipment to export to Mexico what is considered to be the cheapest natural gas in the world. Zárate said this gas will be used by CFE for the generation of 65 percent of the electricity destined to transportation and industry use.

The project is expected to bring natural gas from Waha, Texas and will travel through the states of Tamaulipas, Veracruz, San Luis Potosi, Guanajuato, Queretaro and Puebla. In addition, there is the possibility of creating a crude and natural gas market in the new Transisthmic project that will go from Salina Cruz to Coatzacoalcos.

Zárate explained to El Sol de León that this project would benefit industrial states in Mexico like Guanajuato. Natural gas imported from Texas will allow to generate cheaper energy and reduce  production costs, which could spur investment and employment.

The project will also include the construction of a storage plant in El Brasil, Taumalipas, where natural gas could be saved for longer periods of time. This infrastructure plan will improve the energy industry by changing storage times from three days to six months. In addition, the project will increase the energy supply, which has been under threat by climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Zárate, the natural gas project is supervised by the Mexican government and Alfonso Romo, Head of the Presidential Office.