Mexico Is Also Importing U.S. Liquefied Natural Gas

We all know that Mexico is importing huge amounts of piped U.S. natural gas (here), now at around 4.1 Bcf/d and mostly coming through Texas. And our pipeline capacity to export to Mexico will expand by nearly 50% to 11 Bcf/d by summer, surging to at least 15 Bcf/d by the end of next year. Just a few days ago, Energy Transfer Partners’ launched its Trans-Pecos cross-border pipeline, adding an additional 1.4 Bcf/d to Mexico’s gas pipeline system and one of four new privately owned such lines that will be operating by summer.

There are now nearly 20 gas pipelines that enter Mexico from the U.S. Less environmental pushback in Mexico against required energy infrastructure (both from the government and public) will continually make new builds easier as demand rises. As a still developing nation, huge latent demand potential in the country makes investments particularly attractive as deregulation in Mexico progresses. Demand for modern fuels like oil and gas in Mexico is growing at 3-5% per year.

What’s not so well known, however, is that Mexico is also the main source of U.S. LNG, perhaps the world’s fastest growing energy market and the main arena where the U.S. stands to rapidly increases its global relevance. Mexico has been taking in loads of U.S. LNG from Sabine Pass, the only current U.S. LNG export facility in the contiguous U.S. As of end of March, Mexico accounted for 18 of the 90 cargoes that left Sabine Pass since operations commenced in February 2016 (note: as of writing, there are about 10-12 more U.S. tankers in route to destinations).

Mexico now imports about 55% of its current gas needs, and this could reach 75% by 2020. With dry gas production already down 15-20% this year, troubled Pemex (as of last year, saddled with $90 billion in pension liabilities!), Mexico’s oil and gas monopoly that posted a staggering $14-15 billion loss in 2016, announced in early March that it would be cutting its budget for harnessing natural gas 15% this year to just over $3 billion. Slightly problematic for a country that uses gas for nearly 60% of its electricity.

https://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/mexico-is-also-importing-u-s-liquefied-natural-gas/