The United States has limited capability to help Mexico make up for gas supply losses after what were believed to be terrorist attacks caused huge explosions that could be felt 12 miles away early Monday on several natural gas pipelines and one crude oil line operated by the national oil company, Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex).

Some analysts were discounting the impact of the explosions on the U.S. natural gas market because Mexico accounts for only 0.3% of U.S. imports. The U.S. also exports gas to Mexico, however, and some of the lines connecting the two countries are reversible. Pemex has not said how much gas capacity it has lost, but conceivably Mexico could call on increased supplies from the United States. The Pemex disaster reportedly was a factor in a big jump of 39 cents in October natural gas futures Monday (see related story).

Three pipelines in Texas — Tennessee, Texas Eastern and Kinder Morgan Texas — have export capabilities into Mexico (other cross-border lines from El Paso in Arizona and Sempra Energy in California were believed to be too far west to help Pemex much). Of the Texas lines, only Tennessee is currently active in flowing gas to Mexico, according to Mark Chung of Bentek Energy. Tennessee has a total export capacity of 320 MMcf/d, he said, and 213 MMcf/d of that volume was nominated for the Mexican market Sunday (before the explosions) for delivery Monday.

A spokeswoman for Kinder Morgan Texas said the intrastate pipeline has the capability of sending 0.25-0.5 Bcf/d into Mexico, but nothing is flowing currently. “Of course, that could change” because of the attacks, she said.

“It would shock me” if there was more than 1 Bcf/d of U.S. export capacity to Mexico among all of the border-crossing lines, said Citigroup analyst Tim Evans. Another aspect is that Mexico has no LNG terminals that could be used to help make up the supply shortfalls, he said. He saw the Mexican supply disruptions as more of a psychological support to the U.S. gas market than a physical issue.

The blasts occurred in the state of Veracruz on Mexico’s east coast. The explosions could be felt as far as 20 kilometers (12 miles) away, Ranulfo Marquez, deputy director of the state civil protection agency, was quoted as saying by Associated Press (AP). No injuries were reported but several communities were evacuated. One of the pipelines disrupted reportedly was a main line into Mexico City.

An early Pemex statement said domestic gas and gasoline service would not be affected. However, there were later reports that some factories were forced to shut down after their gas supplies were cut, AP said, and officials expected a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars in lost production.

Jesus Reyes Heroles, the head of Pemex, said it would take four or five days to restore lost service after the situation is brought under control, and Pemex would have to burn off whatever gas it did not succeed in recovering.

According to Pemex, the explosions occurred at the following locations:

A leftist rebel group called the People’s Revolutionary Army claimed responsibility for the explosion Monday afternoon. They also had taken credit for blasting natural gas pipelines in July.

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