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

Every Mexican summer, natural gas imports from the United States peak. The aggregate figure reflects impressive growth in the last decade. If we take the creation of Cenagas in 2014 as a milestone, imports before its existence were a little more than 2.1 Bcf/d. Last summer, we saw import volumes rise above 7 Bcf/d.

The gasification of the country was part of an economic policy in which industries took advantage of a cheaper and cleaner fuel that was readily available across the border. The principle of open access was not a dogmatic measure but rather aimed at...