Paso Norte Pipeline Group (PNP) is holding a 30-day open season for a proposed international natural gas pipeline from the Waha Hub to Chihuahua that would link the Permian Basin to underserved markets in Central and Western Mexico, and terminate at the El Encino Hub in Chihuahua.

The 33-mile long, 32-inch diameter U.S. portion of the Paso Norte Pipeline would originate and interconnect with Kinder Morgan Inc.’s El Paso Natural Gas Southern Pipeline System at Florida Station in Luna County, NM, and would reach the border near the Columbus, NM/Palomas, Chihuahua international crossing, PNP said.

“With the new and evolving Mexican energy laws in mind, the PNP pipeline will interconnect with a corresponding 32-inch Paso Norte Pipeline in Mexico,” PNP said. “The Mexican pipeline will be an open access pipeline to accommodate the growing needs of natural gas in Western Chihuahua as well as addressing the El Encino Hub.”

The U.S. portion of the project is considered a greenfield lateral pipeline project by the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Estimated cost of the project is $60 million. PNP anticipates an in-service date in 3Q2019.

PNP said it intends to match U.S. shippers with corresponding natural gas marketers in Mexico.

In Mexico, the project would be completed in two stages. The first stage would bring service to the port and municipality of Palomas, Ascension, the Apache Power Park and the Palomas Petrochemical Park in the county of Ascension. Estimated length of the fist stage pipeline is 20 miles from the border to the Apache Power Park.

The second stage of the Mexican portion of the pipeline would be from Apache Power Park to the Encino Hub in Chihuahua City. The estimated length with laterals would be 272 miles.

In the Encino hub the pipeline would serve as an interconnect with other pipelines that supply Chihuahua City, the Encino-Topolobampo pipeline and Encino-Guadalajara pipeline.

Details of the open season and contact information are available from PNP.

Interest in Permian gas takeaway from the Delaware formation of the Permian to the Gulf Coast and to Mexico is rising, spurred in part by Apache Corp.’s intriguing Alpine High development.

Last week Summit Midstream Partners LP announced an open season to test support to carry up to 1.4 Bcf/d of natural gas from the Permian Basin to Gulf Coast and Mexico markets.

In December Apache secured 500 MMcf/d of transport capacity and an option to become a stakeholder via Gulf Coast Express, a $1.7 billion proposed project designed to carry 1.92 Bcf/d from the Delaware to Texas and Mexico markets.

Last month Riverstone Holdings LLC and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. agreed to pay $1.6 billion for a portfolio of gas processing properties in the Delaware from Dallas-based Lucid Energy Group and its financial sponsor EnCap Flatrock Midstream.

Houston-based Enterprise Products Partners LP also in early January said it would add 300 MMcf/d of incremental capacity to its cryogenic gas processing facility under construction near Orla, TX, in the Delaware. A third processing train is being added to the facility in Reeves County, increasing the plant’s overall volume capacity to 900 MMcf/d.