Mexico aims to import 9 Bcf/d of natural gas from the US under a five-year plan to build gas pipelines and infrastructure, Mexico's Energy Ministry said Wednesday.
Currently, Mexico imports about 1.5 Bcf/d from the US.
The five-year plan, to run from 2015-2019, includes a new compression station in the northern state of Chihuahua and 13 other projects, many of which are already being tendered or under construction.
Investment was calculated by Energy Minister Pedro Joaquin Coldwell at $11 billion through 2019.
So far all the tenders are being organized by the two state companies of the sector, the Federal Electricity Commission and the oil company Pemex. The recently founded Cenagas will organize them beginning from next year. Cenagas is the autonomous state regulator for natural gas, under the terms of last year's energy reform.
The Ramones pipeline, already under construction by Pemex from the US border to the north Mexican state of Nuevo Leon, is to be extended by 855 km to the southern Gulf state of Veracruz, Joaquin Coldwell said at an event to present the five-year plan.
By 2018, when the current Mexican administration ends, Mexico will build at least 5,000 km of additional pipeline, an increase of 84% on the present network, representing an investment of $10 billion, Joaquin Coldwell added.
His deputy, Lourdes Melgar, recalled the crisis years of 2012 and 2013, when demand for natural gas in Mexico exceeded far more than the available supply from the US and the nation's LNG reception terminals.
Currently, more than 3,000 km of pipeline is under construction to help remedy the shortages, she said, and investment so far amounts to $2 billion.
