Eric Watkins
Senior Correspondent
LOS ANGELES, Apr. 7 -- Sempra Energy, San Diego, has completed expansion of its 140-mile Baja North pipeline, enabling it to carry natural gas from its Energia Costa Azul LNG regasification terminal in Baja California, Mexico, to additional markets across the US border in California and Arizona.
The expansion is expected to be in operation later in the second quarter, Liparidis said.
Sempra Pipeline & Storage Chief Executive Officer George Liparidis, speaking at an analysts' conference, said the $250 million expansion included a 45-mile, 42-in. spur, along with compression upgrades and looping along the existing 30-in. mainline.
Gasoducto Bajanorte SRL operates the pipeline, which originates at an interconnection with North Baja Pipeline LLC west of Algodones and continues west through the cities of Mexicali and Tecate, Mexico.
The existing mainline, which has a capacity of 500 MMcfd of gas, serves new and existing power plants and industrial customers in northern Baja California and Southern California.
He said Sempra soon will have access to another extension as well—the Yuma lateral—to transport gas from the terminal to gas-fired power plants operated by major Arizona utilities in the Yuma, Ariz., area. Construction on the lateral is under way, and completion is expected in early 2009.
In 2005 Sempra LNG was awarded a 15-year gas supply contract by Mexico's state-owned electric utility Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE). The $1.4 billion contract supports CFE's future energy requirements in northern Baja California.
Beginning this year and continuing through 2022, the agreement provides CFE with an average of about 130 MMcfd of gas processed at the Energia Costa Azul terminal.
In 2004, Sempra LNG announced a supply agreement with BP and its Tangguh LNG partners for the supply of 3.7 million tonnes/year of LNG to the terminal from Indonesia.
Contact Eric Watkins at [email protected].
