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.

While the U.S. State Department stopped short of endorsing the U.S.-to-Mexico Sierrita Lateral Pipeline being proposed by Sierrita Gas Pipeline LLC, it said it has “no objections” to a presidential permit being issued for the project.

Long on the defense regarding the historic Macondo well blowout in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico three years ago, BP plc has gone on the offensive to recover some of the settlements it’s paid out for Gulf Coast businesses that may have been inflated or fictitious.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) report on the potential impacts of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) on drinking water resources will likely be finalized in 2016, the agency said Wednesday.

Noble Energy Inc. announced that a second appraisal well targeting the Gunflint prospect in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GOM) has successfully encountered 109 feet of net pay within the primary reservoir.

Atlas Energy LP (ATLS) exploration and production (E&P) subsidiary Atlas Resource Partners LP (ARP) is buying 466 Bcf of natural gas proved reserves in the Raton (New Mexico) and Black Warrior (Alabama) basins from EP Energy E&P Co. LP (EP Energy), a unit of EP Energy LLC, for $733 million.

FERC has cleared the way for Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. LLC to sell more than 1,300 miles of pipeline in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM), known as the Supply Area Facilities, to Kinetica Energy Express LLC, allowing the pipeline to exit the offshore business and shift its attention to the onshore shale market.