US firms secure funding for Mexican energy project
Mirage Energy and Northern Hemisphere Logistics aim to bypass the Panama Canal by shipping US oil and natural gas to Asia via Mexico’s Isthmus Corridor
18 Jun 2020
Mirage Energy president and chief executive Michael Ward says one of the biggest problems in oil and gas transportation is the 'logistical dilemma posed by supertankers that cannot fit through the Panama Canal'
TWO US companies have secured $4bn in funding for the development of a project aimed at moving oil and natural gas to Asian markets.
The operation being set up by Mirage Energy and Northern Hemisphere Logistics involves exports through Mexico’s proposed Isthmus Corridor.
One of the biggest problems in oil and gas transportation is the “logistical dilemma posed by supertankers that cannot fit through the Panama Canal,” according to Michael Ward, chief executive of Mirage Energy.
“The Isthmus project is a logical and far more economical alternative, and we are pleased that the family offices of Bluebell International have agreed to partner with us.''
The Isthmus Corridor project consists of a series of pipelines and storage facilities connecting the port of Pajaritos on the Gulf of Mexico to Salina Cruz on the Pacific Coast.
It is part of the larger Tehuantepec Isthmus programme, which aims to rival the Panama Canal by serving as a land bridge between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.
Mirage earlier announced that its project included rehabilitating dock facilities at Coatzacoalos, Veracruz, on the Gulf of Mexico with new monobuoys.
Plans also call for rehabilitation of pipelines from Coatzacoalos to Salina Cruz, Oaxaca, which also will see new monobuoys.
The Mirage project also will include an underground storage facility for natural gas, with an initial capacity of 52bn cu ft, increasing to 786bn cu ft over time and according to demand.
The storage facility will be linked by a new 42-inch pipeline to Mexico’s National Pipeline System, and an existing 48-inch pipeline will be rehabilitated to carry US natural gas 1,000 miles to southern Mexico from the Waha Hub in west Texas.
The gas development coincides with plans for an LNG facility at Salina Cruz, with a view to exporting gas to Asian and Central American markets.
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