By the OGJ Online Staff
HOUSTON, Apr. 2�Petr�leos Mexicanos (Pemex) has awarded Grupo Profesional Planeaci�n y Proyectos SA de CV (PYPSA) a $5 million engineering, procurement, and construction contract to modernize 10 sour gas treatment plants at the Cactus Petrochemical Complex in Chiapas, Mexico.
PYPSA also announced it has nearly completed a $13 million contract to rehabilitate the No. 7 Pemex compression station at Cempoala, Veracruz.
PYPSA will integrate 10 coalescing filters in the sweetening units. The total capacity of the units is 1.8 bcfd. It will also rehabilitate five horizontal filters, and will change the gas piping of nine heat exchangers.
Upgrades to the Cempoala facility are expected to be completed in June, and the Cactus complex is scheduled to start-up in mid-September.
In 1995, Mexico�s gas consumption was estimated at about 2.4 tcf/year. A government mandate to use cleaner burning fuel and to better utilize its gas transmission system is expected to boost Mexico�s gas consumption to 3.4 tcf/year over the next decade.
Guillermo Barnetche, director general of PYPSA, said, "Mexico remains dependent on US imports for gas supply; however, this year�s start-up of the Cempoala and Cactus facilities will help to lessen that dependency."
Mexico began development of its national gas system in 1977 with the intent of supplying its own needs and exporting to the US. The export contracts never materialized, and three of the seven compression stations built were never brought on line. The No. 7 station is one of the three.
New offshore gas production will make use of the additional sweetening facilities viable, with associated gas coming ashore at the Atasta gathering station in Chiapas. From Atasta, the gas is transported to the Cactus complex along Mexico�s Gulf Coast, and on to Cempoala, linking with a 780-mile, 48-in. trunk line.
PEMEX�s Cempoala facility will recompress gas transported from the Cactus plant. It has a design capacity of 1.5 MMscfd.