Days before the presentation of Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard at the UN to present a proposal for dialogue and peace in Ukraine, the German president visited Mexico. The visit caused surprise but is understandable given Germany's urgency to find a substitute source for Russian gas before the onset of winter.
Oh wait... Mexico burns its natural gas instead of using it and imports a lot from Texas.
German president visits Mexico; seeks to expand trade and energy partnership
Trade, human rights and the supply of
liquefied natural gas (LNG) were among the topics discussed at a meeting between President López Obrador and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Mexico City on Tuesday.
President Steinmeier, Germany’s head of state and a former vice-chancellor of that country, is in Mexico with his wife for a three-day state visit.
López Obrador said on social media that his meeting with the German president, his wife Elke Büdenbender and representatives from the German public and private sector was “very important.”
“We discussed issues of economy, trade, human rights, justice and peace,” he wrote.
His tweet came hours after he described Germany as an “important partner” and longstanding investor in Mexico during remarks at his regular morning press conference.
The meeting between the two heads of state came after a formal welcoming ceremony at the National Palace, the seat of executive power and López Obrador’s residence. Steinmeier, whose role is more ceremonial than political, was scheduled to visit Mexico over two years ago, but his trip was postponed due to the pandemic. His visit is the first to Mexico by a German president since 2011.
After meeting with López Obrador, Steinmeier told reporters that
“the Mexican president offered to step up cooperation on liquid gas,” but didn’t offer additional details.
Germany and other European countries currently face a LNG supply squeeze as Russia has progressively cut off access to the fuel via pipeline. LNG can be transported in tanker ships, but Mexico doesn’t currently export the gas commercially, the news agency Reuters reported. It was unclear whether Mexico planned to begin shipping LNG to Germany, although Steinmeier seemed to suggest that it would.
In addition to meeting with López Obrador, the German president addressed Mexico’s Senate, where he noted that his trip to Mexico had been postponed and acknowledged that the world has changed due to the pandemic.
President Steinmeier looks to "intensify" cooperation on natural gas as Germany faces energy supply shortages.
mexiconewsdaily.com
Tied to imports, Mexico burns one-fifth of the gas it produces
Given the drop in exploration and extraction activities in the previous administration (six-year term of Paña Nieto 2012-2018), natural gas
imports represent up to seven out of every 10 cubic meters consumed in Mexico, mainly by the electricity, oil, industrial, residential, services and motor transport sectors, according to official statistics.
Meanwhile,
the lack of storage infrastructure and maintenance of compression equipment, among other causes, means that the gas sent to the atmosphere (burn) ranges between 10 and 20 percent of the volume produced, according to reports from Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex).
In view of this scenario, the board of directors of CFE Internacional, a subsidiary of the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) proposed a storage program to minimize the negative impacts of abrupt movements in energy prices.
During the last administration, the Mexican Petroleum Institute (IMP) presented to the National Natural Gas Control Center (Cenegas) a study regarding the location of nine sites in depleted fields as prospects for subway natural gas storage.
In September 2020, according to the most recent official figures from the Energy Information System (SIE), domestic natural gas production was 2,485 million 811 thousand cubic feet per day.
Imports, mainly from Texas, reached 5,639 million 936 thousand cubic feet per day.
Mexico resorts to natural gas imports because it is very close to the Waha, Texas market, where the cheapest gas is traded, at a price that represents half of what it costs to extract gas from the Burgos Basin, located between Coahuila and Nuevo León. The gas provinces in Mexico are Sabinas, Burro-Picachos; Burgos; Tampico-Misantla; Veracruz; Southeast and Deep Gulf of Mexico.
During past administrations in Mexico, exploration and production activities have declined, resulting in lower energy production.
Official reports indicate that natural gas production averaged 6,337 million cubic feet in 2010, while 1,459 million cubic feet per day were imported.
Pemex's gas burning increased 69.9 percent between January and September 2020 compared to the same period in 2019, the oil company's financial reports for the third quarter of 2020 reveal.
The growth in gas burning is explained by the high nitrogen content in fields in the Northeast Marine region, as well as failures in the nitrogen elimination plant, maintenance to compression equipment, rejections from gas processing centers and failures in compression equipment.
En una década, las compras al extranjero casi se cuadruplicaron. Mayor dependencia por la caída en la producción de crudo del sexenio pasado.
www.jornada.com.mx