Natural gas production profiles annual growth for the first time in 11 years

Thanks to an improvement in the extraction of dry gas in fields, which is the one located in deposits without being accompanied by crude oil, as of July the national production of natural gas has increased 11.2%, which means its first increase year-on-year in 11 years, while supply has grown and imports of fuel have fallen in the same period.

During the first seven months of the year, production was 2,515 million cubic feet per day on average, which according to the Statistical Record of the Secretary of Energy was 255 million cubic feet higher compared to the same period in 2021, then of having presented only falls from 2011.

However, compared to the dry gas that was produced 10 years ago in the country, which averaged 4.664 million cubic feet per day, the reduction is 46 percent. With this, this year’s increase is barely close to that of 2019, when 2,603 ​​million barrels per day were reported, which implies that even in this government the extraction of dry gas has fallen 3.3 percent.

Meanwhile, the import of dry gas, which in fact is already equivalent to 2.3 times the production, carries an average of 5,829 million cubic feet per day, that is, a year-on-year reduction of 2.5 percent.

In contrast to the dry gas that was imported a decade ago, the volume has increased 2.8 times, since in 2012 2,045 million cubic feet per day were imported, volume, in the opposite direction to the proportion observed today, was less than the half of national production.

And in terms of supply, an increase has also been achieved compared to last year, since 8,345 million cubic feet are reported on average from January to July, an increase of 1.3% compared to 2021.

This supply of dry gas in the country has increased completely in the opposite direction to the behavior of national production (which fell 46%) since, in fact, the supply increased 24% in a decade, while so far this administration, compared to 2019, the increase is only 1 percent.

According to the National Hydrocarbons Commission (CNH), in different sessions of the governing body, the proposal and approval of plans for exploration and extraction in dry gas fields, mainly located in the terrestrial provinces of the north of the country, have been held.

According to commissioner Alma América Porres, who is acting as interim president of the regulator while waiting for the Senate to approve the candidate from the list that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador will send, these are provinces where shale gas could also be exploited, but soon the practice of hydraulic fracturing for these purposes is verbally prohibited, although it is not in law, by the Executive.

gas process

In the Pemex processing complexes, the production of dry gas from January to July was 2,167 million cubic feet per day, which meant an increase of 9.8% compared to the previous year, since they receive more gaseous hydrocarbons in their pure state. to separate its components according to their use.

The utilization capacity of the natural gas cryogenic separation and purification plants in the gas processing centers of Pemex Industrial Transformation, which in 2011 was above 60%, fell year after year until it reached its historical minimum of just over 35 % in 2021. But in 2022 this trend has been reversed to the average from January to August, when capacity use was exceeded, reaching almost 40 percent.

Finally, in a decade, the consumption of natural gas for the generation of electricity in Mexico has practically tripled and according to data from the Energy Information System of the Ministry of Energy, it went from 11,167 million cubic meters in 2011 to 30,712 million cubic meters. in 2021, which, together with the gradual commissioning of new gas pipelines, explains the spike in imports.

In addition to the fact that regionally, US gas continues to be the cheapest in the world, even though today it stands at 6.24 dollars per million cubic feet, in contrast to the prevailing price of 4.50 dollars a year ago; however in Europe and Asia it costs between three and four times more.

karol.garcia@eleconomista.mx