Mexico considering new LNG terminal for Pacific coast

Mexico is considering allowing a third liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal to be built off its north Pacific coast, even as environmentalists are fighting advanced plans for two other terminals. The Environment Ministry is studying an application from an Italian-Mexican consortium for a federal environmental permit to build a floating LNG plant off Rosarito Beach, near the border city of Tijuana, a ministry spokesman said on Wednesday.
To go ahead with their project, Italian-owned, Norway-based LNG tanker designer Moss Maritime and Mexican partner TAMMSA would need a list of other permits, including one from Mexico's CRE energy regulator, a process that could take many months.
A CRE spokeswoman said the companies had yet to apply for a regulatory permit.
Mexico has welcomed proposals from foreign oil companies to build LNG terminals along its coast, as the LNG shipped in from as far away as Indonesia and Australia would help fill a supply gap in natural gas in Mexico and the United States. It has granted permits to ChevronTexaco and Sempra Energy to build LNG terminals in the north-western Baja California peninsula, which is cut off from mainland gas supplies and depends on imported US gas, and for Royal Dutch/Shell to build one on the Gulf of Mexico coast.
Yet environmentalists and civic groups in Baja California have begun legal action to try and block ChevronTexaco and Sempra's terminals, saying they will hurt wildlife and put off tourists.
The new proposal for a floating terminal a few miles out to sea could face less opposition than Sempra's proposed onshore plant, which local residents say will be an eyesore, and ChevronTexaco's offshore plant which would be built just off an island refuge for rare birds and seals.
Yet one group said it would fight the new proposal.
He said offshore LNG terminals would upset sea life and birds with their bright lights and the noise of ships unloading, and could cause distress to gray whales on their annual migration from Alaska to breeding grounds in Mexico.
Moss Maritime, a Norwegian company bought in 2001 by Saipem, the oilfield services unit of Italian energy company Eni, and TAMMSA (Terminales y Almacenes Maritimos de Mexico) could not immediately be reached for comment.