North Baja Pipeline Waiting on LNG Developers to Determine the Extent of New Expansion

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). North Baja Pipeline LLC (Portland Oregon) held an open season from March 31 to September 15, 2003 and received a total of 5.5 Bcf worth of bids for capacity on its pipeline system. The bids were received from seven LNG developers planning LNG terminals in Northwest Baja California, Mexico. Completed in September of 2002, the 500 million standard cubic foot per day North Baja Pipeline originates at an interconnection with El Paso Corporation (NYSE:EP) (Houston Texas) near Ehrenberg, Arizona and follows a route through Southern California and terminates near Tijuana Mexico.

North Baja expects that only one or two of these terminals will be constructed and is waiting to see which one or ones will be built before it can determine the extent of capital investment needed and the scope of the expansion (PEC 06004191).

In short, something is going to happen, but until the LNG developer is selected no one knows what shape it will take. Possible expansion scenarios include simply reversing the flow of the pipeline to deliver the natural gas to markets in Southern California and Ehrenberg, Arizona, reversing the flow and adding compression on the southern leg of the pipeline, or reversing the flow adding compression and looping the entire length of the line with 24" or 30" diameter pipeline. Only time will tell which shape it will take.

North Baja Pipeline LLC is a joint venture between Sempra Energy International a business unit of Sempra Energy (San Diego California) (NYSE:SRE) and Gas Transmission Northwest Corporation (Portland Oregon). Sempra owns & operates the 140-Mile segment in Mexico and Gas Transmission Northwest owns & operates the 80-Mile US segment.