Sempra Increases Stake in Key Mexican Gas Pipe
Sempra Energy said October 6 that its Mexican subsidiary, IEnova, had acquired the stake, owned by state-run Pemex, in Ductos y Energeticos del Norte. The acquisition means that IEnova will increase its indirect stake in the Los Ramones II Norte pipeline from 25% to 50%.
IEnova will acquire Pemex's stake in the pipeline for $231mn, plus an assumption of $289mn in debt, representing Pemex's portion of the overall debt in the pipeline.
The 452-km, 42-inch diameter pipeline commenced operation in February 2016 and transports natural gas from Nuevo Leon to San Luis Potosi. It has a design capacity of 1.42bn ft3/d (14.7bn m3/yr) plus two compressor stations, and is a key enabler of US gas exports to Mexico. Los Ramones II Norte interconnects with the Los Ramones I pipeline and the Los Ramones II Sur pipeline in central Mexico.
The transaction is expected to close in Q4 2017, once the required authorisations have been obtained, including approval from Mexico's federal antitrust commission. The transaction will be subject to customary post-closing adjustments included in the purchase and sale agreement.
Sempra also is in the process of a $9.45bn takeover of Energy Future Holdings Corp. (EFH) announced in August which, once complete, will make it the 80%-owner of Texas power grid operator Oncor. Sempra is co-developing, with partners, the Cameron LNG export project near Hackberry, Louisiana. The first three trains, each with capacity of 4.5mn mt/yr (totalling 13.5mn mt/yr), are scheduled to start operation in 2019 and cost a total of $10bn to develop.
Mark Smedley