Mexico’s Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) has awarded a Shell affiliate a contract to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal in Altamira in the Gulf Coast state of Tamaulipas. The contract calls for Shell’s Gas del Litoral to supply 500 MMcf/d of gas from the terminal to the CFE.

The CFE said Shell’s bid price of $0.18/MMBtu was under the acceptable limit of $0.185/MMBtu. Shell apparently was the only company that submitted a bid, although 16 companies bought the bidding rules. El Paso Corp. had been a partner in the project but dropped out earlier this year as part of a corporate restructuring that included scaling back plans for numerous other LNG terminals, including one it had planned with ConocoPhillips in Baja. El Paso said it still is planning an offshore terminal in the Gulf of Mexico, but it is trying to sell rights to its Bahamas LNG terminal and the Seafarer Pipeline.

The Shell LNG terminal and regasification plant at Altamira could be the first built in Mexico. Four others are planned for Baja California Norte on the West Coast, three of which already have received approvals from Mexico Energy Regulatory Commission.

The Shell project permit calls for two storage tanks, each with a capacity of 150,000 cubic meters, and a pipeline connecting it to the national pipeline grid. It’s expected to cost $370 million to build and can be expanded to a sendout of 1.3 Bcf/d. Its main customers will be power plants in northeastern Mexico.

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