Mexican President Felipe Calderón joined executives of Sempra Energy yesterday to inaugurate the San Diego company's $1 billion liquefied natural gas terminal in Baja California, which is expected to pump fuel to consumers on both sides of the border by early next year.
EDUARDO CONTRERAS / Union-Tribune
Sempra's Energía Costa Azul terminal has the capacity to process up to 1 billion cubic feet of natural gas a day. |
Standing in the shadow of Energía Costa Azul's two massive concrete and steel storage tanks, Calderón said the facility – located near Ensenada – will boost development in the region by supplying cheaper fuel to Tijuana and other Baja cities.
Those benefits will extend to the United States as well, said Donald Felsinger, Sempra's chairman and chief executive.
“This is a momentous and historic occasion both for Sempra Energy and the people of Baja California,” he told several hundred people who gathered at the plant for the early-afternoon ceremony. “What we have accomplished here will reshape the way energy is delivered on our continent.”
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Energia Costa Azul
 Energía Costa Azul is Sempra Energy's new liquefied natural gas terminal.
It's located about 15 miles north of Ensenada, Mexico.
The facility received its first shipments of fuel in April and May, and it's scheduled to start supplying natural gas to customers early next year.
The plant will serve consumers, electricity generators and manufacturers in northern Baja and the southwestern United States.
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Workers completed the terminal in May, and the facility received its first two shipments of liquefied natural gas in the spring from suppliers in Qatar and Trinidad. A third shipment is expected to arrive in September.
The gas is brought to the plant in huge tankers, supercooled to minus 260 degrees Fahrenheit to maintain its liquid state. As the gas leaves the facility, it is warmed to restore its normal gaseous state and then pumped into a network of pipelines that run from San Diego and Tijuana to Mexicali and Arizona.
For now, the gas is being kept on site. Sempra officials said the plant will start distributing the fuel early next year.
The plant is owned by Sempra subsidiary Sempra LNG. It has the capacity to process up to 1 billion cubic feet of natural gas a day, or enough to supply California for just over a day.
Until now, geography has largely cut off Baja from the rest of Mexico. That has forced the region to import its natural gas from suppliers in California, where prices for the fuel – used for everything from cooking to running electricity generators – are among the highest in the world.
Sempra's terminal will give Baja and the southwestern United States access to lower-priced natural gas extracted from wells in Indonesia, the Middle East and other distant locations.
Sempra is betting that growing demand for energy and rising fuel prices will turn the company's sizable investment into big profits.
Calderón's ties to Energía Costa Azul extend well beyond yesterday's ceremony. Before being elected president in 2006, he served as Mexico's secretary of energy in the administration of President Vicente Fox and authorized Sempra's plan to build the terminal in Baja.
Keith Darce: (619) 293-1020; keith.darce@uniontrib.com
