The recent deep freeze and ensuing energy shortfalls across Texas and Mexico underscore the latter’s need for underground natural gas storage, according to Infraestructura Energética Nova (IEnova) CEO Tania Ortiz Mena.

Mexico gas storage

Ortiz addressed the issue on Friday during a fourth-quarter earnings conference call for the Mexico unit of San Diego, CA-based Sempra Energy. IEnova develops, owns and operates energy infrastructure in Mexico, with $10.5 billion in assets and more than 1,400 employees as of 2020.

The lesson of the Texas energy crisis for Mexico is “that we need to have a diverse and reliable power system,” she said, for which access to cheap gas from the United States is a crucial component.

But in order to have reliable gas supply, “it’s critical to have storage in...