Fermaca wins Mexican gas pipeline project

Mexico's Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE), the state-owned electric utility of Mexico, recently said that Fermaca Pipeline de Occidente submitted a bid of US$269,859,462 million and was the lowest bid for the Villa de Reyes-Aguascalientes-Guadalajara gas pipeline project.  

CFE awarded the project to the Fermaca Pipeline de Occidente after the bid opening.

The other three bidders are the following:

• Energía Occidente de México (a subsidiary of TransCanada Corporation)
• Enagás Internacional
• Gasoducto de Aguaprieta (a subsidiary of IEnova)

Transparencia Mexicana is overseeing the bidding process in order to comply with the standards of transparency. This project will be also interconnected to Tula-Villa de Reyes and La Laguna-Aguascalientes gas pipelines, which will be developed also through a bidding process. 

The project comprises the engineering, procurement, acquisition of real estate rights, permits and governmental approvals, funding, construction, operation and maintenance of a pipeline with capacity of 1,000 million standard cubic feet per day (MMSCFD). The pipeline will have a length of 355 kilometers and a 42-inch diameter.

The gas pipeline will supply natural gas to the CFE’s power generation plants located in the states of Aguascalientes and Jalisco, as well as the Central and Western regions of the country.

The pipeline project has an estimated investment of US$555 million. The estimated project implementation time is 25 months, therefore it is expected to start commercial operations in 2018.