Mexico

Assuming the U.S. natural gas business continues its robust growth, Mexico is likely to shift from being an importer to an exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG), Sempra Energy International CEO George Liparidis told participants Tuesday at the Wolfe Research Power and Gas Leaders Conference in New York City.

The development and growth of unconventional natural gas supplies should remain an exclusive domain of the United States, according to a top executive with the energy trading arm of Royal Dutch Shell plc.

Both the overall number of liquefied natural gas (LNG) export projects that ultimately are built and the total volumes of LNG exported may be significantly less than once projected for the United States, experts said Tuesday at the LDC Gas Forum Mid-Continent in Chicago.

There has been a flurry of tropical storm activity across the Atlantic and the Caribbean this week, but with less than 90 days remaining in the 2013 Atlantic hurricane season, energy interests in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) remain unscathed, and the season has yet to produce a single hurricane.

Energy trading house Freepoint Commodities LLC and two private equity (PE) partners on Monday agreed to provide $110 million to Whistler Energy II LLC to buy two producing blocks in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GOM).

Mexico’s federal government-dominated energy sector continues to be the focus of reform talk by the country’s presidential administration, with disclosures by the new CEO at Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) that he will form a new company within the state-operated oil and natural gas giant specifically to go after shale and deep water Gulf of Mexico (GOM) supplies outside of Mexico.

While still awaiting aU.S. State Departmentgreen light on another U.S.-Mexico gas pipeline border crossing, Sierrita Lateral (seeDaily GPI,Aug. 13),Kinder Morgan’sEl Paso Natural Gasunit has moved ahead with the start of operations at its Norte Crossing facilities near El Paso, TX (seeDaily GPI,June 18). Up to 366 MMcf/d can now flow to a new delivery interconnection with the Tarahumara Pipeline at the U.S.-Mexico border beneath the Rio Grande River. Ultimate end-users include five new gas-fired power plants scheduled to be developed during the next 15 years by Mexico’s state-ownedComision Federal de Electricidad. The Norte II power plant was slated to start up earlier this month, drawing its fuel from the Norte Crossing tie-in.MGI Supply Ltd., a firm shipper on El Paso’s system, has a new agreement for capacity at the proposed Norte Crossing facility, allowing MGI to export gas from the United States to Mexico to serve the Norte II CFE power plant.

The bullish shale gas potential that has remained largely unexploited among Mexico’s rich hydrocarbon resources could be unleashed if Monday’s proposal by President Enrique Pena Nieto to open the nation to more shared private-sector energy investment ever becomes a reality.

In a nation where citizens’ national identity is tied to the state-owned oil and natural gas industry, and past high-profile efforts to inject more global private-sector investment have withered, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on Monday proposed opening the nation to more shared private-sector energy investment.