Mexican LNG Project Awards FEED Contract

Mexico Pacific Limited (MPL), which is proposing to build a 12mn mt/yr natural gas liquefaction and export terminal on Mexico’s Pacific Coast near Sonora, said March 9 it had awarded a front-end engineering and design (Feed) contract to Technip USA.

The terminal is the second LNG export facility proposed for the west coast of North America, offering shorter shipping distances to key Asian markets and access to low-cost US natural gas. According to current project timelines, it would place its first trains in service about a year ahead of the larger 14mn mt/yr LNG Canada project, currently under construction on BC's northern coast near Kitimat.

“With major permits in hand and the Feed award completed, MPL is on track to take FID (final investment decision) and establish a world-class North American LNG export facility on the west coast of Mexico,” MPL CEO Douglas Shanda said. “With this unique project, we will address global energy needs while providing substantial cost advantages for our partners.”

Shanda said the company is targeting early 2021 for a final investment decision on the project, with the first 4mn mt/yr module expected in-service in 2024. MPL is controlled by New York-based Avaio Capital, which has more than $50bn worth of infrastructure development underway in the energy, water, transportation and digital sectors.

The project, on a 1,100-acre brownfield site originally permitted as an import and regasification terminal in Puerto Libertad, Sonora, received US Department of Energy export authorisations for free-trade and non-free-trade countries in March 2019.