U.S. gas exports into Mexico nearly tripled between 2010-2015

(High Country News; Paonia, CO; July 7) - If you look at a recent map of Kinder Morgan’s natural gas pipelines in the West, you’ll see several new spurs heading south across the border into Mexico. The pipeline giant has been part of a major increase in energy exports in recent years that largely escaped notice. While potential exports of liquefied natural gas hogged countless headlines, U.S. gas exports through new and expanded cross-border pipelines nearly tripled from 2010 to 2015.

This growth is expected to continue as Mexico takes advantage of low-priced U.S. gas to help continue transforming its electricity sector, which in 2014 was opened to private-sector participation. “The quiet untold story is that the United States has been a net exporter of gas to Mexico for many years,” said Martin Edwards, a vice president at the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America, a pipeline company trade group. “That’s not only expected to continue, but to grow significantly over the next decade or so.”

The growth is good news for Western producers, who saw their Eastern and Midwest markets dry up in recent years with the shale gas boom. Texas producers may be the biggest beneficiaries of new pipelines taking gas into Mexico. Kinder Morgan’s Sierrita pipeline, which went online last year, runs to Sasabe, Ariz., where it meets a new line on the Mexican side of the border. In 2014, Kinder Morgan delivered an average 1.9 billion cubic feet of gas per day into Mexico through several different pipelines.