Interoceanic Corridor Gas Pipeline (Mexico)

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The Interoceanic Corridor Gas Pipeline is a proposed expansion of the Jáltipan-Salina Cruz Gas Pipeline in Mexico.

Location

The proposed new pipeline will run from Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz to Salina Cruz, Oaxaca, connecting Mexico's Gulf and Pacific coasts.

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Project Details

• Operator: CFEnergía
• Owner: CFEnergía
• Parent Company: CFE (Comisión Federal de Electricidad)
• Proposed capacity: 500 million to 560 million cubic feet per day
• Length: 247 km
• Diameter: 30 inches to 36 inches
• Status: Proposed
• Start Year:
• Cost: 471.7 million USD
• Associated infrastructure:
  • Jáltipan-Salina Cruz gas pipeline
  • Salina Cruz LNG terminal
  • Salina Cruz power station

Background

In 2015, Mexico's Secretariat of Energy released a five-year plan calling for a US$643 million expansion of the Jáltipan-Salina Cruz gas pipeline, a strategic route that runs across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. A revised version of the plan, released in 2020, called for the pipeline expansion to have a capacity of 320 million cubic feet per day, with an estimated investment of US$435 million, and a three- to four-year development window.

The Mexican government's "Proyectos México" website has defined the project as a pipeline running from Chinameca, Veracruz, to Salina Cruz, Oaxaca, with a minimum transport capacity of 500 MMcfd and a length of 247 kilometers. Other sources have listed the pipeline's length to be between 232 km and 270 km. Early reports from the Mexican government indicated that the project's completion date was 'to be determined,' while subsequent estimates called for the pipeline to be commissioned in 2023 or 2024.

In October 2020, Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) announced 39 projects designed to revive the Mexican economy in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, including resumption of the Jaltipán-Salina Cruz Pipeline expansion. The expanded pipeline was to carry fossil gas to the proposed Salina Cruz LNG Terminal on Mexico's Pacific coast, where it would be liquefied for export to Asian markets, while also supplying the existing Salina Cruz refinery, the proposed 812 MW Cogeneración Salina Cruz power station, a deep draft port capable of serving large oil tankers in Salinas del Marqués, and 10 industrial parks along the Corredor Interoceánico, a rehabilitated railway corridor originally scheduled for completion in 2023 that would cross the Isthmus de Tehuantepec from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean. The Mexican president (AMLO) stated that he wished to see the entire project, including the Salina Cruz LNG Terminal, completed by the end of his term in 2024.

In August 2021, Mexico's CFEnergía launched an official tender soliciting bids for construction of the Interoceanic Pipeline expansion, indicating that the new pipeline would have a minimum capacity of 500 MMcf/d (million cubic feet per day) and a northern terminus located at Chinameca, approximately 7 km northeast of Jaltipán. CFEnergía's call for bids stipulated that the pipeline must be designed to handle future connections with industrial parks along its route with capacities of 50-70 MMcf/d. Gas from the pipeline would eventually supply 500 industrial plants and parks throughout the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.

In December 2021, CFEnergía's parent company CFE released its 2022-2026 business plan, which reconfirmed the Mexican government's commitment to expanding the Jáltipan-Salina Cruz pipeline as part of its Corredor Interoceánico development. However, the pipeline was not specifically mentioned in CFE's 2023-2027 business plan, and in March 2023, the Mexican gas transport agency Cenagas reported that its attempts to obtain updated status info about the pipeline from CFE had proved unsuccessful, raising questions about the project's status.

A December 2022 update from Mexico's Secretary of Energy continued to list the pipeline as an active project, and a Mexican government report released in July 2023 also listed the pipeline as a key component of the Corredor Interoceánico. However, aside from the trans-isthmus Línea Z train corridor, scheduled for completion as early as August 2023, most of the Corredor Interoceánico project remained in the pre-development phase, with the Mexican government still seeking investors. The government planned to select developers for the first six industrial parks along the railway line by October 2023, a move expected to result in increased demand for fossil gas. Gas supply to Coatzacoalcos, on the north side of the peninsula, was expected to increase significantly in 2025 upon completion of the Southeast Gateway Gas Pipeline., but the status of plans for onward gas transport south across the peninsula to Salina Cruz via the expanded Interoceanic Corridor pipeline remained unclear.

As of February 2024, the Mexican government's "Proyectos México" website showed that the pipeline remained in the "pre-investment" phase. During the first half of 2024, other news sources indicated that the project was still under development, but contingent on capacity expansion at the Chinameca compression station near the pipeline's northern terminus. Rehabilitation of the Chinameca station reportedly began in 2023 and was projected to be complete in 2024.

Opposition

Following the Mexican government's October 2020 confirmation of plans for significant expansion of the Jáltipan-Salina Cruz pipeline, Carlos Beas Torres of the indigenous rights group Ucizoni (Union of Indigenous Groups of the Northern Isthmus) promised that local communities would demand environmental impact assessments, payment for rights of way, and consultations as required by the United Nations.