CFEnergía to supply natural gas to low-carbon methanol plant in Mexico

CFEnergía, a subsidiary of Mexico’s Federal Electricity Commission (CFE), has agreed to supply natural gas to Transition Industries LLC for its Pacifico Mexinol project near Topolobampo, Sinaloa, Mexico.

Under the signed agreement, which enables the start of Pacifico Mexinol’s construction phase, CFEnergía will supply about 160 MMcfd of natural gas for an unspecified timeframe noted as “long term,” Transition Industries said in a release Feb. 16.

The natural gas—to be sourced from the US and supplied at market prices via existing infrastructure—will be used as “critical input for Mexinol’s production of ultra-low carbon methanol,” the company said.

Pacifico Mexinol

The $3.3-billion Mexinol project, when it begins operations in late 2029 to early 2030, is expected to be the world’s largest ultra-low carbon chemicals plant with production of about 1.8 million tonnes of blue methanol and 350,000 tonnes of green methanol annually.

Supply is aimed at markets in Asia, including Japan, while also boosting the development of the domestic market and the Mexican chemical industry. Mitsubishi Gas Chemical has committed to purchasing about 1 million tonnes/year of methanol from the project, about 50% of the project's planned production.

Transition Industries is jointly developing Pacifico Mexinol with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group. Last year, the company signed a contingent engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract with the consortium of Samsung E&A Co., Ltd., Grupo Samsung E&A Mexico SA de CV, and Techint Engineering and Construction for the project.

MAIRE group’s technology division NextChem, through its subsidiary KT TECH SpA, also signed a basic engineering, critical and proprietary equipment supply agreement with Samsung E&A in connection with its proprietary NX AdWinMethanol®Zero technology supply to the project.