-- Good to see quotes in here from a couple of industry folks in Mexico --
Mirage Energy is touting a competitive advantage over the Panama Canal, saying that its locations on southern Mexico’s Gulf and Pacific coasts offer shorter distances and less sailing time to key destinations in Asia, the US and Europe
20 Mar 2020
The Isthmus Corridor is part of the larger Tehuantepec Isthmus programme, a development project carried out by the Mexican government. The scope of the project means it should be able to rival the Panama Canal
MEXICO’s plans to develop a land bridge to rival the Panama Canal advanced this week with announcements that Northern Hemisphere Logistics Inc has hired Mirage Energy Corp to participate in the Isthmus Corridor oil and natural gas project.
“The signing of this agreement gives Mirage the right to participate for 30% of the project,” the company said, adding that the $6bn facility will give “a faster more economical way of delivering crude oil and refined products to Asia and Mexico but also the west coast of the US”.
The company is touting a competitive advantage over the Panama Canal, saying that its locations on southern Mexico’s Gulf and Pacific coasts offer shorter distances and less sailing time to key destinations in Asia, the US and Europe.
Mirage said the project includes 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, on the Pacific coast, which also will see new monobuoys.
The project will also 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 in place for an LNG facility at Salina Cruz, with a view to exporting gas to Asian and Central American markets.
“The LNG plant is conceived as being a possible private-sector initiative in what will be a largely state-owned project, in which the gas will be provided by the Comisión Federal de Electricidad,” Ramses Pech, a partner with Mexico City-based consultants Caraiva y Asociados, told NGI.
The Isthmus Corridor is part of the larger Tehuantepec Isthmus programme, a development project of the Mexican government, which aims to rival the Panama Canal by serving as a land bridge between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.
Héctor Ramírez Reyes, director of the agency in charge of the Tehuantepec Isthmus programme, told BNamericas that the restructuring of the world economy now means that “a lot of production takes place in Asia and is consumed in developed countries”.
“Taking advantage of this situation, what we want to do is to use an interoceanic corridor, which is of strategic importance for the country, the world and Latin America and currently only Panama has one,” he said.
Mr Reyes said development of the Tehuantepec Isthmus “would allow the transportation of merchandise from one side to another”.
At just 77 miles wide, that distance gives the isthmus another competitive advantage, making it the shortest point in North America between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean.
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