By means of Official Communication number SENER.100/195/2022 dated June 13, 2022, the Ministry of Energy urged the Energy Regulatory Commission to modify the “Terms and Conditions for the Provision of Services of the Independent Management Permit for the Integrated National Natural Gas Transportation and Storage System”. (“SISTRANGAS”)”, in order to implement a “Supply Assurance Strategy for the optimization of SISTRANGAS capacity” (hereinafter, the “Strategy”).
It also requested the Centro Nacional de Control del Gas Natural (National Center for the Control of Natural Gas) to (“CENAGAS”) to, in its capacity as independent manager of SISTRANGAS, and as a requirement for the rendering of the natural gas transportation service at the import points of SISTRANGAS, in turn require the users or those interested in receiving the natural gas transportation service to provide the following:
a) Gas supply by state-owned production companies. Users or those interested in receiving the gas transportation service must prove, within a term of 60 calendar days, that the supply the natural gas is supplied by one of the state-owned productive enterprises or their subsidiaries or affiliates (e.g., supply contract entered into with Pemex);
b) Hiring of the Federal Electricity Commission (“CFE”). That, at the points where the CFE (or its subsidiaries and affiliates) has reserved capacity in the transportation systems (i.e., capacity in the gas pipelines), the contracting (of the natural gas transportation service) with the CFE should prevail;
c) Transportation service. That the provision of transportation services, in any of its modalities in SISTRANGAS, is ensured with the contracting of transportation capacity in pipelines, with any of the State Productive Companies, respecting the priority identified in the previous paragraph (i.e., giving priority to CFE).
As a result of the official communication issued by the Ministry of Energy, CENAGAS issued CENEGAS-UGTP/00434/2022, addressed to the users of the CENAGAS Natural Gas Transportation Service, where it informed the actions to implement the Strategy.
In this regard, it informed the users that, in the event that the Transportation Service Contract signed by the users with CENAGAS contains the Commercial Nodes referred to in Table 1 of the aforementioned official communication[1], these users have the obligation to prove compliance with the requirements established in the Strategy (i.e., to prove the execution of contracts with State Productive Companies).
In view of the damage that the implementation of the Strategy could cause, 10 companies filed an injunction against the application of the Strategy to their detriment. Consequently, yesterday (July 18, 2022), the Second District Judge in Administrative Matters, specialized in Economic Competition, Broadcasting and Telecommunications, granted the definitive suspension against the Strategy and, with this, such companies will not have to comply with the obligation to prove that they receive the supply or transportation service of natural gas from any of the State Productive Companies. It is worth mentioning that the suspension granted is so that the responsible authorities refrain from executing, to the detriment of the complainants, the obligations contained in the Strategy. In other words, the suspension is not applicable to all companies that are in this situation, but only to those that filed the injunction.
Finally, yesterday, the Ministry of Energy issued a press release informing that they will file a review and appeal against such resolution, considering it illegal.
At Acedo Santamarina we have extensive experience in natural gas matters, as well as in litigation before different authorities, to support you in guaranteeing the continuity of your business.
[1] V030 GLORIADIOS; V818 ELCASTILLONINY; V076 GASA; V055 LNGALTINY; V067 IMPENERGT; V061 RAMONES; V074 MONTEGRANDE; V062 INYTGNHELSAUZ; V078 INYLEONGUZMAN
Enrique López
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