EL PASO STARTS SELLING GAS TO MEXICAN PLANT

El Paso Natural Gas Co. has begun deliveries of natural gas to an electric power plant in Mexico to back out fuel oil. Initial deliveries of about 30 MMcfd of gas to the Samalayuca power plant about 30 miles south of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, are expected to cut the plant's use of high sulfur fuel oil by about 5,000 b/d. El Paso expects deliveries to the Samalayuca plant will increase to the plant's capacity of about 70 MMcfd.

Dec. 9, 1991

El Paso Natural Gas Co. has begun deliveries of natural gas to an electric power plant in Mexico to back out fuel oil.

Initial deliveries of about 30 MMcfd of gas to the Samalayuca power plant about 30 miles south of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, are expected to cut the plant's use of high sulfur fuel oil by about 5,000 b/d.

El Paso expects deliveries to the Samalayuca plant will increase to the plant's capacity of about 70 MMcfd.

The power plant was constructed in 1985 and is owned and operated by Comision Federal de Electricidad, a Mexican government agency responsible for generating and distributing electric power within Mexico.

Northern Mexico is a burgeoning market for U.S. gas exports.

Some industry officials predict that Mexican demand for U.S. natural gas, spurred by mounting air quality concerns in Mexico and the exponential growth of U.S.-Mexican joint venture industries along Mexico's border with the U.S., will continue to rise sharply from almost nothing a few years ago.