Mexico’s LNG sector has seen notable advancements in the past year, including new export project announcements and strategic investments. But many of the proposed LNG projects require extensive pipeline buildouts — no easy task south of the border and perhaps the biggest impediment most of the export projects face. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll look at where things stand with Mexico’s LNG sector and the export projects under development.
Mexico has an estimated 17 Tcf of proven natural gas reserves and gas is increasingly being used to replace oil as a feedstock in power generation. However, while Mexico has an estimated 545 Tcf of technically recoverable shale gas resources, the sixth-largest in the world, unlocking their full potential is hindered by the limited availability of the required technology, the accessibility of low-cost U.S. natural gas, proposals to ban fracking in shale gas extraction, and the hefty challenges that come with building a pipeline in Mexico (more on that in a bit). Despite those challenges, Mexico has encouraged domestic production by inviting private companies to bid on new gas pipelines and storage facilities for imported U.S. gas, and there are at least a half-dozen LNG export projects underway.
Before we get into the LNG export projects under development, we should note that New Fortress Energy (NFE) shipped the first cargo from its Altamira LNG export project (green diamond in Figure 1 below) on Mexico’s east coast in August 2024. The 1.4-million-tons-per-annum terminal (MMtpa; 0.2 Bcf/d), a floating LNG (FLNG) facility on three jack-up rigs that rest on the sea floor, has since exported two additional cargoes. A second FLNG unit at Altamira is expected online in H1 2026 and will increase the terminal’s capacity to 2.8 MMtpa (0.4 Bcf/d). The initial FLNG unit at Altamira was the first of its kind in Mexico. The shipments were delivered (via the Panama Canal) to NFE’s La Paz power plant in Baja California state, with future cargoes planned for global markets.
Figure 1. Operational and Planned LNG Export Projects in Mexico. Source: RBN
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