MEXICO CITY – The Mexican government said on Thursday that it was reversing an order from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to curb natural gas exports, part of the state’s effort to solve widespread power outages affecting millions of Texans left without electricity in the United States. means of a deadly winter storm.
The assignment of mr. Abbott heightened tensions between the two countries, with top Mexican officials protesting the governor’s decision to cut off gas supplies just as Mexico is working to resolve its own mass power outages due to the icy weather.
“We are doing our diplomatic work to prevent this from happening,” Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador told a news conference on Thursday, referring to Mr. Abbott’s command. “It will affect not only Mexico but also other states in the Union.”
Governor Abbott on Wednesday ordered producers from Texas who export natural gas from the state to sell to generators in the state until February 21.
The outfall south of the border of mr. Abbott’s measure highlighted the extent to which Mexico relies on much of its power over the United States, just as Mr. López Obrador is campaigning for greater Mexican energy sovereignty.
Gas-fired plants generate about two-thirds of Mexico’s power. In 2019, 96 percent of natural gas imports were from the United States, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
According to Mexican energy officials, natural gas pipelines between the two countries froze, which, along with an increase in gas demand in the United States, disrupted energy production in northern Mexico and left nearly five million customers in Mexico. without power earlier in the week.
The mass disruptions affected not only private homes but also the industry, with major manufacturers such as General Motors and Volkswagen being forced to suspend operations, which Reuters reportedly suffered $ 2.7 billion in losses.
On Thursday, Mexico’s state energy company, the Federal Electricity Commission, or CFE, said it had restored power to all users by generating energy from other sources, including hydroelectric and coal-fired plants.
This latest outage comes in December on the heels of about 10 million people without electricity.
Authorities in Mexico quickly shifted the blame for this week’s outage to its northern neighbor, with Mr. López Obrador who repulses the critics of the state energy enterprise.
“Although the problem has arisen in the United States, in Texas, to be exact, all the criticism is directed at the Federal Electricity Commission, against the government of Mexico,” the president said Thursday.
Mexico’s Minister of Economy, Tatiana Clouthier, said on Twitter that she spoke with Roberta Jacobson, a leading assistant to Biden Administration for the Southwest Border, on the issues facing Mexico and the United States due to the ’emergency facing Texas’ and said that both countries are seeking is to ‘immediate solutions’.
Energy experts said the latest power outage would add ammunition to López Obrador’s pressure to revamp the energy sector and guarantee Mexican energy independence, regardless of the cost to users or investors.
“Right now, it’s easy to point to Texas, to the United States, on the dependence on gas imports,” said Adrián Garza Patiño, a senior analyst at Moody’s rating agency. “And even more so with the reaction of the Texas government itself.”
Mr. López Obrador, who rebuilt the reconstruction of the CFE and the oil company Pemex, a central pillar of his political and economic agenda, this month sent a bill to Congress that could destroy competition from private renewable energy plants by state – owns plants, many of which are used with fossil fuels, which is the first power in the country.
The business groups and environmentalists shouted at the proposal, and the changes are likely to significantly boost Mexico’s commitment to reducing emissions through coal and oil-fired plants as well as privately funded renewable energy.
López Obrador, political party, Morena, has a majority in both houses of Congress, but the future of the bill remains uncertain. On Monday, Mexico’s antitrust watchdog urged lawmakers not to approve the proposal, saying the reforms would severely hamper competition.
Later in the week, the finance committee in the House of Representatives, the House of Commons, said the reforms could cause electricity price increases, and that it was in danger of violating Mexican obligations under the U.S.-Mexico trade agreement, local media reported.
Even if the bill does not gain traction, the impact of Mr. López Obrador to make a lasting impact on Mexico’s economy, energy changes that opened the country to private investment during the previous government, analysts said.
“The private sector and foreign investors are concerned about the conditions for investment, or the legal uncertainty in Mexico,” he said. Garza said. “Investors are thinking of leaving the country, or at least stopping investing further, which is an important element for economic growth.”