Editor’s Note: NGI’s Mexico Gas Price Index, a leader tracking Mexico natural gas market reform, is offering the following column as part of a regular series on understanding this process, written by Eduardo Prud’homme. This is the seventh in the series.

On May 6, pipeline operator Cenagas published the preliminary results of its 2019 consulta pública, a national survey of the market geared at assessing natural gas demand in the country. The results serve not only as a way forward in designing public policy, but they also help to understand the market as a whole.

A few points first to understand the process. The consulta transcends national pipeline system Sistrangas, partly because the aim is to understand relationships between production basins and demand centers throughout Mexico’s gas network. Furthermore, the results don’t reflect total national demand, but instead provide information to complement existing sector projections coupled with demand related to economic growth.

That fact that the consulta is voluntary enhances the richness of the data. It’s not imposed from above. Each year market agents actively participate in the laborious process, and their willingness to do so reflects the inelasticity of their natural gas demand.

To read the full article and gain access to more in-depth coverage including natural gas price and flow data surrounding the rapidly evolving Mexico energy markets, check out NGI’s Mexico Gas Price Index.