While in the Chamber of Deputies the presidential initiative was approved in commissions to modify the Constitution and give priority in the electrical dispatch to the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) (both its clean generation infrastructure and its fossil sources), the importation The national price of natural gas was the highest in history last year and constituted almost 72% of consumption, with the highest price of hydrocarbon in decades and the calculation of the state electricity company itself to increase the participation of this hydrocarbon in generation by 20 percentage points. national this year if the reform is approved.
And it is that in 2021 the import of natural gas in Mexico reached a volume of 5,928 million cubic feet per day, which is its historical maximum with an annual increase of 13%, in addition to which it corresponded to 71.9% of the consumption of natural gas in the country, which last year stood at 8,242 million cubic feet per day while national production was only 2,314 million per day, according to the latest Statistical Handbook of the Ministry of Energy.
In 2020, the import of dry gas was 4,995 million cubic feet per day, while that of liquefied gas amounted to 251 million cubic feet per day. With this, the total import of this hydrocarbon for industrial uses and for generation through combined cycles for electricity generation rose to 5,246 million cubic feet per day.
And meanwhile, until the last data available from September of last year, the burning of natural gas was 271 million cubic feet per day, that is, 11.7% of the production by Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), derived from the lack of investment to use this hydrocarbon.
war effect
At the same time, the United States has increased its exports of liquefied natural gas to Europe, derived mainly from the reduction in the Russian supply of the hydrocarbon, which has led to an increase in prices, so that in January of this year this fuel, that arrives by ship after being compressed and decompressed, that is, liquefied natural gas, had a price of 26.20 dollars per million cubic feet, when in the same month of the previous year it was just over 9 dollars per unit.
In January of this year, the price of natural gas imported through pipelines of the National Natural Gas Transportation System (Sistrangas) and those operated by the CFE reached 4.77 dollars per million cubic feet. Despite the fact that its increase has been much lower than that of the price of liquefied natural gas, it increased by 76% in one year, after in January 2021 it was barely 2.71 dollars per million cubic feet.
It should be remembered that during its participation in the Open Parliament forums towards the discussion of the electricity reform in the Chamber of Deputies, the general directorate of Intermediation of Legacy Contracts of the state-owned electricity company admitted that it would go from generating 62% in 2021 to 77% in 2022 of its energy through fossils such as coal, fuel oil, diesel and natural gas, adding 140,493 gigawatts per hour and increasing this type of generation by 83% in one year, if this constitutional reform is approved.
In his presentation within the forum 15 of the Open Parliament of the electrical reform in San Lázaro, Mario Morales Vielmas, general director of Intermediation of Legacy Contracts of the CFE, presented his prognosis if the new energy legal framework is approved, in which, thanks to the existing infrastructure in combined cycles that has been placed in the last decade in the country, through natural gas, the electricity of the state electric company will go from 57,096 to 119,514 gigawatt hours, increasing from 45 to 65% in its participation in the national generation.