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Low demand for natural gas in the South-Southeast
The supply of natural gas in Mexico in 2021 was 8 thousand 131 million cubic feet per day (MMcfd), of which 2 thousand 203 came directly from production fields operated by public and private companies, or from Pemex’s gas processing centers, while 5 thousand 928 MMcfd were imported, according to the organization.
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48.1% of the demand was concentrated in the six northern border states (Baja California, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, Sonora, and Tamaulipas), while the nine states of the south-southeast region accounted for only 16% of the demand.
With the exception of Puebla, Tabasco, Veracruz, and Yucatán, demand from the rest of the states in the south-southeast region was marginal (Oaxaca) or non-existent (Campeche, Chiapas, Guerrero, and Quintana Roo).
On the other hand, Baja California Sur, Campeche, Chiapas, Colima, Guerrero, Nayarit, Oaxaca, Quintana Roo, and Sinaloa did not demand natural gas for industrial use or electricity self-generation, or their demand was marginal (less than or equal to 0.02% of total demand), said the IMCO.
It added that the capacity of the existing infrastructure must be expanded while providing the transportation system with redundancy to guarantee a continuous supply of natural gas to industry, the electricity sector, and households that demand it.
“Only in this way will Mexico be able to take full advantage of the opportunity presented by nearshoring and fulfill the objective of developing the south-southeast of the country,” they said.
Calls for the completion of natural gas transportation projects
In its report, the IMCO considered it essential to complete the natural gas transportation projects that are currently underway, such as the Tuxpan-Tula and Tula-Villa de Reyes pipelines, the expansion of the Mayakan pipeline in the Yucatan Peninsula, the extension of the maritime pipeline to Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, and Paraiso, Tabasco; and Jáltipan-Salina Cruz.
It even proposed reactivating inactive projects, such as the Salina Cruz-Tapachula pipeline, and incorporating new projects to provide a competitive supply to the Yucatán peninsula or to entities such as Guerrero.
“Only in this way will Mexico be able to capitalize on its geography, commercial openness, and labor force, and consolidate itself as a power for investment in the context of nearshoring,” affirmed. Expanding the gas pipeline network to all regions of the country is an indispensable condition for democratizing the potential benefits of the regionalization of value chains and advancing the nation’s energy transition, it said.
Therefore, IMCO proposed facilitating investment in natural gas transportation infrastructure, investing sufficient resources for the expansion of the gas pipeline network to the south-southeast and reducing the environmental impact of the construction of natural gas transportation infrastructure. It also suggested converting conventional thermoelectric plants to natural gas, since those that use fuel oil and diesel to generate electricity produce more emissions of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, suspended particles and other pollutants than combined cycle plants, which use natural gas.
