Southeast Gateway Gas Pipeline

This article is part of the Global Fossil Infrastructure Tracker, a project of Global Energy Monitor.

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The Southeast Gateway Gas Pipeline (known locally as Gasoducto Puerta al Sureste) is a proposed natural gas pipeline in Mexico.

Location

The pipeline is proposed to run offshore along the Mexican coast, originating onshore in Tuxpan, Veracruz and making landfall again at Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz and Dos Bocas, Tabasco, Mexico.

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Project Details

• Operator: TC Energía
• Owner: TC Energía; Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE)
• Parent company: TC Energy; Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE)
• Capacity: 1.3 billion cubic feet per day
• Length: 715 km to 778 km
• Diameter:
• Status: Proposed
• Start year: 2025
• Cost: US$4.5 billion
• Financing: FID (August 2022)
• Associated infrastructure:
  • Sur de Texas-Tuxpan Gas Pipeline

Background

In July 2022, the Canadian firm TC Energy announced a partnership with Mexico's CFE (Comisión Federal de Electricidad) to build an extension to TC Energy's existing Sur de Texas-Tuxpan Gas Pipeline. The estimated budget for constructing the new pipeline was initially estimated at US$5 billion. The new offshore pipeline would transport natural gas from the existing pipeline's southern terminus in Tuxpan to the port of Coatzacoalcos in Veracruz state, where it could be fed into the expanded Jáltipan-Salina Cruz Gas Pipeline for transport across the Tehuantepec Isthmus to the proposed Salina Cruz LNG Export Terminal. An additional section of offshore pipeline would extend east from Coatzacoalcos, making landfall again at the Dos Bocas refinery in Tabasco state.

The new pipeline would initially be owned 85% by TC Energy and 15% by CFE, with CFE's ownership stake increasing to 49% by 2026.

In August 2022, TC Energy and the Mexican Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE) reached an FID to build the project, as part of a broader strategic alliance consolidating other infrastructure, including the Tula-Villa de Reyes Gas Pipeline and Tuxpan-Tula Gas Pipeline. On August 10, 2022, TC Energy announced a public offering of common shares to help fund the project.

According to TC Energy, the pipeline will be 715 kilometers in length; CFE, in its 2022 annual report, described the pipeline as slightly longer (778 kilometers).

As of July 2023, TC Energy planned to begin laying offshore pipe in late 2023, with start-up of commercial operations expected during the first quarter of 2025.

In May 2024 TC Energy reported that all three landfall sites for the Southeast Gateway Pipeline were 100% complete, with deepwater offshore pipe installation more than 70% complete, and steady progress underway in the construction of onshore facilities. The pipeline project reportedly remained on budget and on schedule for a mid-2025 start-up date.

Opposition

Following the August 2022 final investment decision on the Southeast Gateway pipeline, 18 organizations led by the Centro Mexicano de Derecho Ambiental (CEMDA) warned of the pipeline's grave risk to the surrounding coral reef corridor. They alleged that TC Energy and CFE were trying to avoid scrutiny of the project's total impact by filing separate statements for two sections of the pipeline, and urged oil and gas regulator Agencia de Seguridad, Energía y Ambiente (ASEA) to order TC Energy and CFE to submit a single impact statement for the project as a whole.