San Diego-based Sempra Energy has joined with two other natural gas providers in a deal struck June 12 to build a natural gas pipeline through to Baja California.
Sempra will work with San Francisco-based Pacific Gas & Electric Corp. and Mexico’s Proxima Gas SA de CV to build the North Baja Pipeline, a $230 million, 212-mile natural gas pipeline to deliver 400 million cubic feet of natural gas a day to Baja California, Mexico.
The two U.S. firms and the Mexican company have signed an interim agreement to develop, design, construct and operate the pipeline. The project will begin at a natural gas facility near Ehrenberg, Ariz., run across southeastern California and northern Baja California, and end when it joins the Rosarito pipeline south of Tijuana.
PG & E; will direct development of the 77-mile U.S. leg of the pipeline, while San Diego-based Sempra will direct development of the 135-mile Mexican leg, which will link the company’s existing natural gas assets in Rosarito and Mexicali.
If approved by U.S. and Mexican regulators, the proposed pipeline could be in service as early as January 2003. Its primary target markets are power plants and energy-intensive industries in Baja California, the builders said, citing plans for power generation in the area.
Sempra and Proxima currently own and operate four energy businesses in Mexico, allocated in the northern half of Mexico. These operations include natural gas distribution systems in Mexicali, Baja California, Chihuahua and the states of Coahuila and Durango, as well as the pipeline from San Diego to the Rosarito Power Plant in Baja California.
