EspañolThe steady drop in natural gas production, as well as increased demand in Mexico, has created a fossil fuel deficit in the country, officials said.
Director of Mexico’s National Fossil Fuel Commission Héctor Moreira said the country’s high dependence on the United States for gasoline and natural gas is a problem.
“What we have before us is national concern about how we can encourage natural gas production and how we can deal with our dependence on imports,” Moreira said, who claimed this could even be a national security issue.
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“We require a mechanism to promote gas exploitation,” he said. “In the United States, they are drilling 25,000 wells per year and we are drilling 1,000. Canada now has 700,000 wells, while we have 30,000, so we need mechanisms to encourage natural gas production.”
Moreira said that among electricity companies, there is a growing need for guaranteed natural gas service for operations, and that may be a method to help the industry grow in Mexico, where natural gas is priced very low.
“We have to tie electricity production to gas production. If a company is producing gas, it can make a long-term contract with someone who produces electricity. So, with the money, you obstain a financing system. That idea has not been implemented yet, “said the commissioner.
“If we have natural gas alone,” he added, “in Burgos, for example, then as we produce less oil, we produce less gas, and the world is moving toward gas, whose consumption is growing. So now the question is: how do we do encourage gas production?”
Source: El Economista