Saguaro Connector Pipeline

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Saguaro Connector Pipeline is a proposed gas pipeline expected to run from the Permian Basin, Texas, U.S. to the Mexican border.

Location

The pipeline is proposed to run from the Waha Gas Hub in the Permian Basin in West Texas, U.S. to the Mexican border in Hudspeth County, Texas.

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Project details

• Operator: Saguaro Connector Pipeline, LLC
• Owner: ONEOK

• Parent company: ONEOK

• Capacity: 2.834 billion cubic feet per day

• Length: 155 miles / 250 km

• Diameter: 48 inches
• Status: Proposed
• Start year: 2025

• Cost: US $9.5 million

• Financing:

• Associated infrastructure: Saguaro Energia LNG Terminal, Sierra Madre Gas Pipeline

Background

In December 2022, Saguaro Connector Pipeline, a subsidiary of ONEOK, Inc. filed a presidential permit application with U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to construct and operate facilities for the exportation of natural gas at a new international border-crossing at the U.S. and Mexico border in Hudspeth County, Texas. The proposed pipeline is designed to transport natural gas from ONEOK's existing WesTex intrastate natural gas pipeline system in the Permian Basin in West Texas to Mexico. It would also connect to a new pipeline under development at the International Boundary with Mexico for delivery to the LNG export facility on the West Coast of Mexico, in Puerto Libertad.

Saguaro Connector Pipeline route and cross-border connection to Sierra Madre pipeline. Original Sources: Oneok, SICIM, and Texas Monthly.

The project was originally expected to begin service mid-2023. In August 2023, FERC published an environmental assessment report for the Saguaro Connector Pipeline Project to construct, install, operate, and maintain an approximate 1,000-foot, 48-inch-diameter natural gas pipeline in Hudspeth County, Texas that would cross the United States and Mexico International Boundary below the Rio Grande. This would act as an interconnection to transport natural gas from Texas to a pipeline being developed in Chihuahua, Mexico. It would connect to the Sierra Madre Gas Pipeline.

In September 2023, ONEOK was waiting on the sanction of a proposed LNG export terminal on Mexico's Pacific coast for proceeding with the Saguaro Connector Pipeline.

As of January 2023, the construction was expected to begin in 2024, with plans to become operational in 2025.

In mid-February 2024, FERC approved Saguaro Connector Pipeline, LLC to "site, construct, and operate" the pipeline and related facilities "for the export of natural gas at the International Boundary between the United States and Mexico." A day later, Commissioner Allison Clements partially dissented the aspect of the decision in which FERC declined to assess the GHG impacts of the Saguaro Border Facility, noting that FERC should have concluded that the GHG impacts were insignificant under the appropriate federal acts.

In response to FERC's approval of the project, ONEOK announced that it expected to make a final investment decision (FID) by mid-2024.

In June 2024, the Sierra Club and Public Citizen sued FERC for improperly limiting its analysis of the project to the 1000-foot connector pipeline at the US-Mexico border, while neglecting to consider the full impact of the much longer main pipeline.

In August 2024, Mexico Pacific Limited announced that it expects to make a final investment decision on its LNG export terminal by the end of this year. According to an online article published in bnamericas, "when the project receives the green light, Oneok will be responsible for developing and operating the Saguaro connector pipeline." Oneok also said that they are not expecting to begin construction of the pipeline in 2024.