Mexico Plans to Become an Export Hub With US-Drilled Natural Gas
With its northern border situated right near a booming US shale patch, the country aims to be one of the world’s top shippers of sought-after LNG.
Giant storage tanks at Sempra Energy's Costa Azul terminal, designed for importing LNG, will now be used for exporting it instead.
Photographer: Don Bartletti/Los Angeles Times/Getty ImagesMexico — which imports nearly all of the natural gas it burns — has laid out a somewhat surprising mission: to become one of the world’s top exporters of the fuel, and fast.
Although natural gas exports from Mexico are today non-existent, seeing as it produces too little of the power-plant fuel to supply even its own domestic needs, the country’s physical proximity to booming US reserves positions it well to supply American gas to hungry buyers in Europe and Asia. With US shale in mind, a total of eight liquified natural gas export projects have been proposed south of the border boasting annual combined capacity of 50.2 million tons. Some of the operations aim to come online as soon as next year.