Salina Cruz LNG Terminal (CFE)

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Salina Cruz LNG Terminal (CFE) is a proposed LNG export terminal in Mexico.

Location

The terminal would be located on Mexico's Pacific coast, near Salina Cruz in the state of Oaxaca.

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Project Details

• Owner: CFEnergía, Sempra Infrastructure
• Parent company: CFEnergía, Sempra Energy
• Location: Salina Cruz, Oaxaca, Mexico
• Coordinates: 16.161733, -95.195759 (approximate)
• Capacity: 3 mtpa
• Status: Proposed
• Type: Export
• Start Year: 2024

Note: mtpa = million tonnes per year; bcfd = billion cubic feet per day

Background

In October 2020, the Mexican government proposed an LNG export terminal in Salina Cruz with a capacity of 3 mtpa, designed to process gas brought in from Mexico's Gulf coast via an expansion of the existing Jaltipan-Salina Cruz gas pipeline. The pipeline expansion and the new LNG terminal are both components of Mexico's ambitious Transoceanic Corridor project, aimed at linking Mexico's Gulf and Pacific coasts and bringing large-scale economic development to the country's southeastern states. Gas for the project would come from domestic production by Mexico's state oil company Pemex or from Texas via the recently completed Sur de Texas-Tuxpan gas pipeline and the proposed Southeast Gateway Gas Pipeline. Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador stated that he wished to see the project completed by the end of his current term in December 2024.

In August 2021, Mexico's CFEnergía launched an official tender soliciting bids for construction of the terminal, whose liquefaction capacity was listed at 430 million cubic feet per day or 3 million tonnes per annum (mtpa). The proposed terminal, with an estimated cost of 60 billion pesos (approximately US $ 3 billion), would export natural gas to Asia.

In July 2022, CFE and US-based Sempra announced that they were engaged in preliminary and non-binding discussions regarding joint development of the Salina Cruz terminal. As of 2023, multiple sources reported that Sempra Energy was still working with the Mexican government to advance the project, though there appeared to be minimal interest from other private investors.

Opposition and other challenges

There has been significant local opposition to the Salina Cruz LNG terminal project, and some analysts have deemed it unfeasible due to insufficient domestic production, incomplete pipeline infrastructure, and the high cost of importing gas from the United States.

Numerous citizens' groups in Mexico, including Greenpeace, Nuestro Futuro, Alianza Mexicana Contra el Fracking, Conexiones Climáticas and Planeteando have called for the government to cancel all pending LNG export terminal projects in the country. The groups argue that LNG terminals create a host of serious negative impacts for local communities, including health effects from toxic chemicals such as benzine and nitrogen oxides, climate change associated with heightened levels of greenhouse gas emissions, devastation of marine life due to dredging, and the associated negative economic impacts on fisheries.

Other LNG terminal proposals in the Salina Cruz area

Golar Energy made an earlier proposal for an LNG export terminal in Salina Cruz, which would have deployed a Golar-owned and operated Floating LNG storage and production unit to convert Mexican feed gas to LNG for export to Pacific markets. The proposed unit aimed to produce approximately 2.2 Mtpa and was expected to begin operations in 2Q 2018. As of February 2020 there had been no development updates on the Golar-owned project, and it was no longer listed on the company website as of 2021.

In August 2024, Pilot and GFI proposed a smaller LNG export terminal in Salina Cruz, with a capacity of 0.34 mtpa, an anticipated FID date of 2025 and an estimated commissioning date of 2027.