Mexico has prepared a plan for the development and implementation of an open and competitive marketplace for natural gas (Implementation Plan). The hope is that the Implementation Plan will result in a fully competitive Mexican natural gas market by sometime in 2018. The Secretary of Energy has recently published the Implementation Plan for public comment, in a document entitled “Política Pública para la Implementación del Mercado de Gas Natural.”

The Implementation Plan builds on Mexico’s dismantling of the vertical integration of the natural gas value chain, which has been controlled by for some 75 years by Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex). As a consequence of the “de-integration” of Pemex, the Centro Nacional de Control del Gas Natural (CENAGAS) now owns and controls the national natural gas pipeline system. Unlike Pemex, CENAGAS will not itself use pipeline capacity as a shipper; instead, pipeline capacity will be made available on an “open access” basis and rights to capacity will be awarded through competitive bidding processes. The institution of an “open access” requirement and the development of a robust secondary market in natural gas pipeline capacity in the U.S. have proven successful in transforming the world’s largest natural gas market into a vigorously competitive one; it is clear that Mexico is taking many of its cues in the planned restructuring of its natural gas industry from the U.S. experience.