Mexico gas storage plan revealed

MEXICO CITY, December 15, 2017 – The Secretariat of Energy and National Centre for Natural Gas Control on Thursday unveiled a strategy to address Mexico’s natural gas storage needs.

The plan calls for using depleted fields to establish 1.27 bcm (45 bcf) of storage capacity by 2025, allowing the country to cover five days of national consumption. The first storage facilities are expected to be operational as early as 2020.

So far, the energy secretariat has identified 15 fields that could be used, and a full list of areas under consideration is to be published in the coming days. The National Hydrocarbons Commission, Mexico’s E&P authority, will evaluate the proposed areas before opening a public inquiry process that could run for more than six weeks.

Formal guidelines will be established by the country’s Energy Regulatory Commission, paving the way for a 2018 tender to choose developers for the storage facilities.

According to government officials, daily and weekly reports on volumes of gas produced, processed and transported, as well as inventories, will be kept starting in September 2018.

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