Nueva Era Pipeline

This article is part of the Global Fossil Infrastructure Tracker, a project of Global Energy Monitor.

Sub-articles:

FrackSwarm portal Coal terminals Coal transport and infrastructure Oil and gas pipelines LNG terminals Pipeline construction costs Methodology and data notes

Nueva Era Pipeline is an international natural gas pipeline running from Texas, USA to Nuevo León, Mexico. The section on the US side of the border is alternately known as the Impulsora Pipeline.

Location

The pipeline runs from from Howard Energy Partners' hub in Webb County, Texas, USA to the Monterrey metropolitan area in Nuevo León, Mexico, where it supplies gas-fired power stations including CFE's Huinalá and Noreste (Escobedo) combined cycle plants.

Loading map...

{"type":"ROADMAP","minzoom":false,"maxzoom":false,"types":["ROADMAP","SATELLITE","HYBRID","TERRAIN"],"mappingservice":"googlemaps3","width":"400px","height":"300px","centre":{"text":"","title":"","link":"","lat":25.85049,"lon":-100.262047,"icon":""},"title":"","label":"","icon":"","lines":[{"text":"","title":"","link":"","strokeColor":"#FF0000","strokeOpacity":"1","strokeWeight":"2","pos":[{"lat":27.812405,"lon":-99.512866},{"lat":27.712756,"lon":-99.697365},{"lat":27.604832,"lon":-99.868429},{"lat":27.579907,"lon":-99.968552},{"lat":27.455431,"lon":-100.019648},{"lat":27.118123,"lon":-100.058681},{"lat":26.991002,"lon":-100.104173},{"lat":26.89441,"lon":-100.068477},{"lat":26.778069,"lon":-100.150544},{"lat":26.721123,"lon":-100.158275},{"lat":26.49549,"lon":-100.098909},{"lat":26.338483,"lon":-100.108202},{"lat":26.209315,"lon":-100.095129},{"lat":26.120027,"lon":-100.133199},{"lat":26.033973,"lon":-100.12621}]},{"text":"","title":"","link":"","strokeColor":"#FF0000","strokeOpacity":"1","strokeWeight":"2","pos":[{"lat":26.033973,"lon":-100.12621},{"lat":25.990947,"lon":-100.122715},{"lat":25.942089,"lon":-100.087823},{"lat":25.874812,"lon":-100.072171},{"lat":25.7818,"lon":-100.070765},{"lat":25.7195,"lon":-100.1016}]},{"text":"","title":"","link":"","strokeColor":"#FF0000","strokeOpacity":"1","strokeWeight":"2","pos":[{"lat":26.033973,"lon":-100.12621},{"lat":26.021285,"lon":-100.174227},{"lat":25.966882,"lon":-100.187003},{"lat":25.953908,"lon":-100.227087},{"lat":25.925598,"lon":-100.23614},{"lat":25.933692,"lon":-100.264817},{"lat":25.918484,"lon":-100.310245},{"lat":25.8668,"lon":-100.36955}]}],"polygons":[],"circles":[],"rectangles":[],"copycoords":false,"static":false,"visitedicon":"","wmsoverlay":false,"zoom":6,"layers":[],"controls":["pan","zoom","type","scale","streetview","rotate"],"zoomstyle":"DEFAULT","typestyle":"DEFAULT","autoinfowindows":false,"resizable":false,"kmlrezoom":false,"poi":true,"cluster":false,"clustergridsize":60,"clustermaxzoom":20,"clusterzoomonclick":true,"clusteraveragecenter":true,"clusterminsize":2,"imageoverlays":[],"kml":[],"gkml":[],"searchmarkers":"","fullscreen":false,"scrollwheelzoom":false,"locations":[]}

Project Details

• Operator: Nueva Era Pipeline
• Owner: Howard Energy (50%), Grupo Clisa (50%)
• Capacity: 600 million cubic feet per day
• Length: 200 miles (322 kilometers)
• Diameter: 30 inches, 36 inches
• Status: Operating
• Cost: US$500 million
• Start Year: 2018
• Financing: US$353 million debt financing provided by MUFG, Santander, Caixa Bank, Société Générale and Sumitomo Mitsui

Background

The Nueva Era pipeline is a 50-50 joint venture between Howard Energy Partners (HEP) and Grupo Clisa, intended to supply Mexico's growing natural gas market with gas from Texas. The pipeline is a key component of Howard Energy's planned "AguaRey" corridor, designed to connect the South Texan hub of Agua Dulce with Monterrey.

The pipeline originates at the HEP Webb County Hub and transports gas to an international border crossing between the United States in Webb County, Texas, and Mexico in the vicinity of Colombia, State of Nuevo Leon. Impulsora, a subsidiary that operates the pipeline, received its Presidential Permit on May 14, 2015, to construct, operate and maintain border-crossing facilities.

The pipeline includes a 36-inch, 19-mile segment on the Texas side of the border and a 30-inch, 181-mile segment on the Mexican side. Near the northern outskirts of Monterrey, Nuevo León, the pipeline splits in two, with one branch continuing southwest to the Noreste combined cycle power station in Escobedo and the other heading southeast to the Huinalá combined cycle power station in Pesquería. The pipeline was commissioned in June 2018.

According to the U.S.'s Energy Information Administration (EIA), the pipeline's anchor shipper is CFE (506 MMcf/d), and the design capacity is not expected to be reached.

In February 2021, the pipeline stopped flowing from Texas temporarily due to extreme cold and blackouts.

Financing

In November 2016, the project received US$353 million in debt financing from MUFG, Santander, Caixa Bank, Société Générale and Sumitomo Mitsui

An additional US$40 million loan was provided by MUFG in January 2018 and a further US$505 million in debt was raised for the project in July 2018 by MUFG and Société Générale