XALAPA, See (Process).— The Canadian company TC Energía, in charge of the Southeast Gas Pipeline, operates four other gas pipeline systems in Mexico and has transactions for more than 6 billion dollars, but has a controversial record.
In January 2021, the President of the United States, Joe Biden, signed the rescission of the permits for the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline by this company, after 13 years of controversies.
The objective of this pipeline was to transport some 830,000 barrels of oil per day on a 1,930-kilometer route, from Hardisty, Alberta, in Canada, to Steele City, Nebraska. In 2015 the project was halted by then-President Barack Obama, but it was reactivated in 2017 by President Donald Trump.
In 2018, a federal judge temporarily blocked its construction, alleging that the US government had not adequately reviewed its environmental impact and the layout affected the territory of indigenous groups.
Finally, the White House decided to cancel the project because it goes against climate change policies and commitments to reduce dependence on fossil fuels.
The government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador also entered into a dispute with TC Energía, which it accused of having obtained leonine contracts. The CFE reported in 2019 that it filed preliminary lawsuits before the International Arbitration Commission against some clauses of the contracts for seven gas pipelines, which forced it to pay the construction companies in case of delays in the works, in addition to the fact that they had lower profitability than in other countries.
The Lopez Obrador government filed disputes to review the gas pipeline contracts run by TC Energía: Sur de Texas-Tuxpan, Tula-Villa de Reyes and Tuxpan-Tula.
However, a renegotiation agreement was reached. TC Energía announced last July that it would be a partner of the CFE in the construction of this new gas pipeline which they call the “gate to the southeast”.
Within the framework of the inauguration of the Olmeca refinery in Tabasco, the federal Executive himself led as witness of honor the signing of “two strategic alliances in the field of energy”, as announced by the Presidency: the first, between CFE-TC Energía, for 5 billion dollars “to guarantee energy security in the southeast, with the development of the marine pipeline to Coatzacoalcos.”
The second alliance was between the CFE and New Fortress Energy Corporation, for 2.2 billion dollars, and “will allow the CFE to be a partner in a natural gas liquefaction project, acquire an additional generation plant in Baja California Sur and guarantee the supply of natural gas in that region,” according to the federal statement.
At the same event, the head of the CFE, Manuel Bartlett, announced: “CFE will have a 15% stake in the entire company and from 2026 it will increase its stake in the new extension pipeline until it owns 49%.” .
This alliance also helped resolve another dispute involving the company TC Energía, the route of the Tuxpan-Tula gas pipeline.
In November 2015, the CFE awarded TC Energía the construction of the Tuxpan-Tula gas pipeline, which runs 250 kilometers to supply natural gas to the combined cycle electricity generating plants in Veracruz, Puebla and Hidalgo.
Indigenous communities warned that the route of the gas pipeline crossed several kilometers of springs, mountain cloud forests and sacred places in the northern sierra of Puebla and Hidalgo. In 2017 they obtained a federal protection to stop the works and change the original layout.
In 2020, López Obrador made a commitment to the communities to change the route, which, as announced by the CFE head, has already been fulfilled and the construction of the gas pipeline will continue this year.
The Texas-Tuxpan marine pipeline was also a matter of discussion. In 2017, fishermen from Tamaulipas and Veracruz filed three amparo requests to stop its construction, considering it an environmental attack. However, the project continued and entered into operation in 2019.
In April 2021, the federal government threatened to revoke the authorization title for this gas pipeline for breach of some clauses, but everything ended with an agreement between the company and the government.
López Obrador’s energy policy gives priority to gas pipelines. In his recent meeting with his counterpart Joe Biden, he offered to make more than a thousand kilometers of gas pipelines available to the United States on the border to transport gas from Texas to New Mexico, Arizona and California, in order to generate up to 750 megawatts of electrical energy and supply to 3 million people.
The environmental organization Greenpeace warned that building a new refinery and developing pipelines to transport imported natural gas from the basin in the southern United States are measures opposed to the fight against climate change and Mexico’s commitment to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 22%. greenhouse effect by 2030, as well as generate 35% of its electricity from clean sources. he