San Antonio (Platts)--24Apr2008

A second start-up liquefied natural gas cargo is set to arrive around May
at Sempra LNG's Costa Azul LNG import terminal in Baja California, Mexico, the
first such facility on Mexico's western coast, officials said at a San Antonio
energy conference this week.
"It's a small cargo, and that's just to cool down the terminal and start
performance tests before they can officially commission," said Juan
Granados-Zuniga, energy projects manager for Mexico's state power company,
Comision Federal de Electricidad.
The first cargo arrived three weeks ago at the 1-Bcf/d terminal, he said.
The second cargo will also be used for the 45- to 60-day commissioning period
and not for commercial delivery. Sempra has said that commercial operations
will begin in the second quarter.
Sempra, which has half the terminal capacity, has a back-to-back contract
with BP's Tangguh LNG project in Indonesia to send LNG to Costa Azul, "and
that will start bringing cargoes from their train in early 2009," Octavio
Simoes, Sempra LNG's vice president of commercial development, said this week.
"Obviously we have other discussions for bringing in other cargoes, but
at this point I cannot divulge anything," Simoes said.
Shell has the other half of the terminal capacity. Starting July 1,
Mexico's state power company will take 230,000 Mcf/d of Costa Azul gas for
power generation, with 150,000 Mcf/d of that firm, and 80,000 Mcf/d depending
on demand, Zuniga said.