Mexico must cultivate a natural gas price index independent of U.S. benchmarks and develop a secondary market for pipeline capacity, according to experts who spoke last week in San Antonio, TX.

Because of Mexico’s reliance on imports from the United States, natural gas in Mexico typically is priced using a U.S. index such as Henry Hub, Waha or Houston Ship Channel, plus a transport premium. Panelists addressed the issues at the 9th Mexico Gas Summit earlier this month.

However, private sector producers in Mexico “don’t access the transport premium,” Jaguar Exploración y Producción CEO Warren Levy told the conference. Jaguar is the largest holder of onshore exploration acreage in Mexico besides state oil company Petróleos Mexicanos, aka Pemex.

[Get Better Intel:...