Sempra Begins Natgas Pipeline Construction

Sempra Energy International (SEI), a subsidiary of San Diego-based Sempra Energy (NYSE: SRE), has started construction of a 23-mile, US$35mn natural gas pipeline between California and Mexico, SEI said yesterday. The duct is scheduled to come on stream by December to move 300 million cubic feet of natural gas per day to the Presidente Juarez power station at Rosarito Mexico's Baja California del Norte State. SEI would supply US$1bn worth of natural gas to the power plant over its 10-year contract, according to SEI chairman and CEO Richard Farman. The pipeline to Rosarita is the first step in a plan to distribute natural gas to industries and residences in the Mexican border town of Tijuana, home to hundreds of assembly plants, according to SEI. SEI has contracts to distribute natural gas to the northern Mexico cities of Mexicali and Chihuahua as well as to Rosarita. The company secured a fourth license to supply natural gas in Mexico, to the city of Torreon and elsewhere in the northern states of Coahuila and Durango, SEI announced Wednesday. The company has said it planned to invest US$1bn in Mexican power projects over the next 10 years.