Contribute operational excellence and capital
“The natural gas that we produce in the Gulf of Mexico can be processed and exported to Asia and Oceania,” he added. The liquefaction plant could be coming on stream by 2020, he said.
Pemex provided a written statement and tweets with information from Martinez’s presentation.
Pemex does not aim to go it alone with the venture. The company looks to form a consortium with “strategic partners that can contribute operational excellence and capital.”
But George Baker, president of Houston-based consultancy Energia.com, said over the weekend that Pemex lacks a track record for a comparable operation. And independent, Mexico City-based analyst David Shields said: “There simply isn’t enough gas in Mexico.”
Year to date through September, Mexico has produced 6.52 Bcf/d of natural gas, up from 6.37 Bcf/d in 2012, though well short of the 7 Bcf/d that it notched up in 2010.
“And only this week, the ministry announced a new agreement to pipe gas from Mexico to Guatemala and the rest of Central America,” said Shields.
In effect, the Guatemala project is a re-run. The 2000-2006 administration of Mexican President Vicente Fox planned a pipeline to link Mexico with Central America; it failed because there was no Mexican gas available. So far this year, imports of natural gas by pipeline have been 1.4 Bcf/d. The US Energy Information Administration estimates that Mexico last year imported the LNG equivalent of slightly more than 400,000 Mcf/d of gas, through its three reception terminals: Altamira, on the country’s northern Gulf Coast; Costa Azul in Baja California; and Manzanillo, on the central Pacific Coast.
But very soon imports will surge. Next month, the first stage of the $3 billion Los Ramones pipeline will pump US shale gas into Mexico’s industrial north. Phase two of Los Ramones is due to come on stream a year later, adding more than 2.1 Bcf/d to add to Mexico’s imports.
Los Ramones is a Pemex project. Other pipelines are bringing more US gas from the Pacific Coast.