Financial close reached for Villa de Reyes-Aguascalientes-Guadalajara gas pipeline

Fermaca has achieved financial closure for Villa de Reyes-Aguascalientes-Guadalajara gas pipeline project.

A group of international lenders including ING, Nord/LB, Banco Santander, Banco Sabadell, Mizuho Bank, Natixis, Banca Intesa, KfW, and BNP Paribas and The Korea Development Bank, has provided project financing. Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP has acted as legal advisor of the lenders.

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 late 2018.

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 886 million standard cubic feet per day (MMSCFD). The pipeline will have a length of 378 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.

This project will be interconnected to Tula – Villa de Reyes and La Laguna – Aguascalientes gas pipelines. This system will supply natural gas to new power generation plants, as well as those currently operating with fuel oil, which will be converted to use natural gas as their base fuel.