Mexico launches 2nd phase of $2.5 bn gas pipeline project

globalpost.com


Mexico City, Mar 28 (EFE).- Mexican authorities inaugurated the second phase of a project to build the $2.5 billion "Los Ramones" gas pipeline, which will stretch for 1,021 kilometers (635 miles) from the U.S.-Mexico border to the central state of Guanajuato.

Energy Secretary Pedro Joaquin Coldwell, Environment Secretary Juan Jose Guerra and the CEO of Mexican state-owned oil giant Petroleos Mexicanos, Emilio Lozoya, were on hand for the ceremony, Pemex said in a statement.

The conduit, hailed as one of the country's most important infrastructure projects of the last four decades, will boost the capacity of the nation's gas pipeline system and guarantee the supply of cheap natural gas imports from the United States to industrial consumers in central and northeastern Mexico.

Thurday's inauguration ceremony was held at the Los Ramones compression station, which is owned by Pemex's gas and basic petrochemicals unit and located along the Reynosa-Monterrey highway.

The pipeline, which will run from Camargo, Tamaulipas - across the border from Rio Grande City, Texas - to Guanajuato and meet nearly 20 percent of Mexico's natural gas demand, is scheduled to begin operating in December 2015.

The project is essential for increasing the availability of natural gas at competitive prices, "substantially alleviating existing bottlenecks," Lozoya said.

"These types of projects guarantee that Mexico will be a part of North America's energy revolution," he added.

Guerra added that Los Ramones will contribute to the production of cleaner and more environmentally friendly fuels.

Phase 1 of the project, currently under construction, encompasses an area stretching from the U.S.-Mexico border to Los Ramones, a municipality in the northeastern state of Nuevo Leon, while phase 2 covers the southern stretch of the pipeline to Guanajuato