The lack of natural gas and ethane is not only due to the fall in national production. Another important factor is the lack of adequate infrastructure (transport and storage) that allows users to have supply options. This absence of alternatives has condemned the petrochemical chains, from the Pemex complexes to the industries that transform these inputs, to operate below their potential. All this has stopped investment in the sector, affected competitiveness, and committed the industrial development of the state.
Today, the solution is in sight.
Veracruz awaits the early start of operations of two projects considered strategic: the Puerto México Chemical Terminal (TQPM) of Braskem and Advary and the Puerta Gas pipeline southeast TC Energy and the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE). The first will import and store ethane – the main input of petrochemistry – while the second is an underwater gas pipeline that seeks to increase the supply of natural gas to the industrial zone of Coatzacoalcos (and the south of the country).
The Gate to the Southeast gas pipeline represents a case of cooperation between the private sector, in this case TC Energy, and the CFE, which shows that it is possible to build strategic alliances to address the most pressing challenges of the country’s energy sector.
This experience makes it clear that public -private collaboration can not only facilitate the execution of large -scale projects with high economic and social impact, but also feel a valuable precedent that could – and should – replicate in other strategic areas of the sector where investment requirements are high. The petrochemical industry could be a candidate for this type of collaboration models.
For its part, with the imminent entry into operation, the Puerto México Chemical Terminal cannot be avoided on the possibility of opening new horizons not only for ethylene XXI, but also for the petrochemical industry of the region, that is, that Pemex itself can at some point benefit from the increase in the availability of ethane and, through a better articulation of its assets in the region, reactivate the chain of ethylene.
That said, the new import and storage capacity that these projects represent could be the trigger that state and private petrochemistry needs to reverse the underutilization of its plants and, with it, generate a more conducive environment to attract new investments to the industrial corridor of southern Veracruz.
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